Crossing
by RustyViko4ever
Summary: 10th chapter: The Festival-and the invasion of Burmecia-begins. A lone soldier struggles to reach Lindblum, Jason struggles not to get himself killed when love becomes involved, and Freya struggles to not hurt Zidane for being such a skirt chaser!
1. New Ally

Rusty, The Anime-Niac, proudly presents...

A fic-type that has been done over, and over again...

That just had to be done once more...

Crossing

Because I had no better name!

This is one of those infamous fics where a person gets zapped into their FF9 game. I'm going to try and make this good, okay? Don't just stop reading right now. You know me! This should be good.

Chapter 1

Never-mind why Jason had always been different from everyone else he knew. The fact was that he was different, and there was nothing he could do about it. So Jason just dealt with his oddity: his ability to mold thoughts into reality, and call upon pure psychic energy to deal damage to whomever. He only knew he could do these things, and that with training he would be able to access the full power. For now, there was very little he could actually do. It didn't bother him, though, because he was always done with his homework within an hour or two of coming home from school, and had no social life to speak of. So he had plenty of time to train his mind.

Jason was fourteen years old, had pale skin, light brown eyes and blonde hair that was almost white. He was about 5'5", (shall we say a bit smaller then Zidane?), and had no musculature whatsoever. But it didn't matter, because he was a psyker. What would never make much sense to Jason was how it all happened. He stood on the damp ground, wondering about it. He knew what this place was, he just couldn't figure out why he was here.

His little brother, Garry, absolutely loved his Final Fantasy 9 game. His thoughts were almost completely filled with Final Fantasy 9, and Jason could read them all. So he knew that he was sitting in what was called 'The Evil Forest', and that the people he followed were named Zidane, Steiner, and Vivi. He actually would have known anyway, being the psyker he was, but that didn't really matter. Jason that about it some more.

He had been watching his brother play, trying to predict his movements. He had been doing pretty well, actually. Then his brother got to the Evil Forest. Jason thought about the place, and suddenly it seemed more real then anything he had even experienced. And all of the sudden, there he was, standing just behind the three heroes, having made not a sound at all, and wearing an outfit similar to Zidane's.

"Well... never mind why I'm here. If I know RPG games... and I do..." he mused to himself, "this is going to get ugly. I could stand to be with them."

So he followed. And when Zidane, Steiner and Vivi stopped at the spring to take a drink and talk with the Mog, Jason caught up. Needless to say, they were all surprised.

"Kupo!" shouted the Mog. They all looked back to see Jason standing there placidly. Zidane regarded him idly, Vivi looked frightened, and Steiner pointed his sword at him, asserting authority.

"You! Who are you, and what are you doing here? Have you been following us? If so, for what purpose?"

"Woh, Rusty, slow down! You're asking the poor guy too many questions!" Zidane intervened. Steiner grew upset at the way he had been addressed, and Jason just watched quietly. Then he answered each question, in order.

"My name is Jason, I am here as the result of some inter-dimensional mix-up, I was following you, and I was doing so because I have a very bad feeling about this forest."

He received four blank stares.

"KUPO!" shouted the Mog as it flew away.

Jason blinked. "Oh... I see. The Mog has a privacy issue..."

Everyone was confused beyond their normal mental limits. Zidane decided to take this all lighthearted, of course.

"Okay, Jason," he began, thinking of how strange a name it was, "I don't know what's going on here, but seeing as how this is the Evil Forest, after all, you had better come with us."

Jason nodded.

"Guess we should introduce ourselves. I'm-"

"Zidane," Jason said. More blank stares arrived. Jason then continued.

"Steiner and Vivi," he said, pointing to the owners of each name. 

"How do you know these things, mendicant!" Steiner shouted. Jason suddenly realized that no one here understood what he was. So he smiled, chuckled, looked down, then explained himself.

"I can read minds, sometimes. I have some other special powers you'll probably find useful. Oh, and I know all of your names because..." Jason hesitated. What might happen if he told them this was all just a game? They would probably think he was crazy, and that was the last thing he needed. He was never good with people skills.

"Because?" Vivi asked, quietly. Jason shook his head.

"Never mind. Let's go; we have a princess to rescue!" he urged them. They paused for a moment, and then they all realized what he had been saying. They were all thinking a lot about the princess, so he could probably tell what was going on. No more arguments were given as they walked on towards the Plant Brain's layer. They did have one monster encounter along the way, though, and they all got a taste of Jason's power. 

A single goblin had snuck up on them, but Jason noticed it right away. He turned around to see it rushing at him, preparing to slice. The hair on his head seemed to fizzle a bit, and his eyes dilated for a moment, and then the goblin was down, moaning. Jason sighed; it was truly sad. All of this time he had such awesome power in him, and he had come so close to using it on kids at school before. But that would all have to go behind him now. The others were once again looking at him oddly.

"Right, an explanation, I know!" he assured them. "My mind is very powerful. I can focus on a target, and overload their brains for a bit. It causes a lot of damage, apparently." Jason thought for a moment. How to put this in RPG terms? "Consider it my attack, just as Zidane has his dagger, Steiner his sword, and Vivi his staff. I have my mind."

"Okay... that's weird as heck, but I'm glad to have you with us! I wouldn't want to have to fight someone who can read my thoughts and fry my brain," Zidane jested. Vivi and Jason laughed a bit, while Steiner remained indignant. "May we proceed? The princess needs assistance!"

"Oh, right, sorry. Let's go," Zidane apologized, somewhat sarcastically. The group moved onward to face the Plant Brain.

"Woh! That thing is huge!" Zidane called out. Steiner spotted Garnet.

"And it has the princess!" he shouted. Vivi looked nervous, while Jason sized up the beast. Suddenly, he had a very accurate picture in his mind of how strong the creature was; probably its HP; and how fast it was moving. That would be its ATB. He could even tell what it was weak against! Astounding! He tried to share this newfound knowledge with his teammates, and it seemed to work, because they all changed their expressions rather rapidly. So Jason discovered his first skill: Analyze, he dubbed it. It didn't seem to take any of what a person might call MP, so he found it very interesting. There thus had to be something else he could do that took magic power. After Vivi assisted Steiner in a magic attack, Zidane looted some item from the creature, and Vivi used a fire spell on it, Jason knew it was time to act.

"What to do?" he thought to himself. He wasn't entirely sure that thing even had a brain circuitry for him to overload, and he didn't want to waste a precious attack finding out. Suddenly, it came to him.

"Goblin form!" he shouted, instantly feeling some of his power drain. It had to be a magic attack. And, quite shockingly, he found a creature identical to the goblin he had killed earlier taking form in front of him. It became apparent to him that he was suddenly in complete control of the creature, and couldn't do much for himself. So he ordered it to attack, and it obeyed. Quite surprisingly to all of the others, who had an idea of how strong a Goblin was, the creature appeared to have four times the strength it should. Its slash attack rivaled the power of Zidane's!

"Woh, Jason, what did you do?" shouted Zidane, after stealing another item. The Goblin shook its head and made some weird noises that were supposed to be "I'm not sure". Jason seemed to be stuck inside the goblin. But that ended soon, because the Plant Brain smacked the creature viciously, sending it to an early grave. Jason came back to his own body.

"Looks like you guys could use some help," Blank said, appearing mysteriously. "Who's the freak?" he asked, meaning Jason. Jason couldn't help but find this funny, since Blank was the one with a patch over his face and a crazy outfit. Then again, Jason didn't look much better, but never mind. The plant creature was casting a spell, it seemed, and was casting it at him. Vivi, Steiner and Blank all finished up their attacks before it could, though, and that gave Jason just enough time to save himself from being zapped. Because once again, he used the Goblin-form ability, and there was the creature to take the heat for him. It even got in one attack first. 

Then it was zapped by a lightning spell and once again faded out of existence. The battle continued on like this for a while, with Zidane and Blank struggling to retrieve the last item from the monster, Vivi and Steiner using magic, and Jason deciding to stick with his regular attack. It actually worked, though it didn't seem to be very effective. Jason was low on MP, though, and he felt kind of sorry for the poor goblin creatures. Soon, the Plant Brain was dead, and the entire forest was in an uproar.

Steiner grabbed the princess, and the group ran out at top speed. The plant spiders started chasing after them. They didn't pay much attention, but Jason made a point to kill one with his psychic attack, just in case he could use a Plant Spider form attack later on. It was all so fascinating to Jason, even though he could die at any moment. He was now completely sure that this was his new reality, and it would be a wild ride indeed. He hadn't even played this game, so he had no idea what was coming! There was always the possibility that he'd wake up and find himself in his bed if he died. He'd seen enough weird things to believe it.

What really got Jason was when Blank sacrificed himself. He tried to imagine what it would have looked like from the player's point of view, and it was nothing compared to this. Then, Jason was struck with an odd idea. What if his brother Garry was playing this deformed game, with Jason it? He didn't even want to think about it. The idea of his younger brother controlling his every move in conjunction with the orders of a CD was just too disturbing for him.

Night came outside the forest, and they began to rest. Everyone had a lot to think about, especially Jason. It was going to be a long night.

Well, that's my first chapter. Hope you enjoyed! More will be coming either way.

Rusty The anime-niac


	2. New enemies

Yes, Jason is a bit too powerful, isn't he? I'll tone him down a bit, plus he's going to have really crappy defense and stuff like that... besides, imagine that he starts at level 7 instead of level 1, and it seems to make some sense. So, here's chapter two.

Jason couldn't sleep at all, but he did figure a lot out. He tried to reach out to his brother telepathically, as he had always been able to do, despite the space between them, but he couldn't hear a thing. That made it far less likely that he was actually in a game, and that this was actually an alternate reality of sorts. It was even possible that Jason might have inadvertently created this strange world, and then placed himself in it. It didn't really matter, though. What Jason needed to figure out was if he could and how he would get home, and what to do about his situation if he couldn't. Since the latter seemed more likely, that dominated most of his thinking.

At that moment, Steiner decided to retire from his guarding duties, and so Jason got up to take his place. He paced around the camp slowly, then became aware of a powerful presence in one of the minds near him. Ah, it was the princess. He looked down at her softly, and saw that she was not sleeping. Well, he sensed it actually, but her mind was too active and her thoughts too coherent for her to be asleep. Yes, she seemed to be missing home a bit already, and worrying about her mother.

Jason felt a pang of homesickness. Normally he never even concerned himself about it, but what would his mother think about his mysterious disappearance? She'd probably think that he ran away for some training purposes or something... and that wasn't too far off from the truth. Well, there really wasn't any point in worrying about it. He'd just have to find someway back home, if possible, and if not, then oh well. So Jason just continued his vigil, on through the night. Zidane even woke up, offering to switch with him, but Jason knew he wouldn't get any sleep any way. There was just too much to think about. He knew what RPGs were like, and that meant this was going to involve a lot of fighting. He would have to make sure he knew everything about his powers.

He had a goblin form attack, but he hadn't been able to try out a plant spider form attack. Then again, he was very tired, and didn't know if he'd be able to use it now if he could at all; but what the heck? He thought about the form of the plant spider, its many legs, and the way it could grip a person and never release that person, and the Mist began to swirl a bit. Surely enough, there was the creature, and by Jason's command, it was silent. Realizing the creature's ability to see in the dark, he sent it out to go scouting. It could move very fast, and covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. Fortunately, nothing came near the camp until the spider came back, and all of the knowledge tucked itself safely into Jason's head. Suddenly, though, there was a bit of problem.

What was Jason going to do with this creature? If he let it go, would it run amuck? Well, never mind. If it did, Jason could handle it. But what if it didn't? Knowing how RPGs worked, it would probably fade out of existence. Then again, there was no proof that this was an RPG at all, so who could tell? Only one way to find out. Jason relinquished his control of the beast, and sure enough, it sat down, then died. Jason felt a bit of regret, but the creature never really had a life to begin with; it was just a tool of Jason's. 

Now, though, Jason was really tired. So he nudged Zidane awake, and the odd thief with a tail took over. Jason actually managed to fall asleep, and never had another problem until sunrise the next morning. That problem? Breakfast. 

Zidane yawned. "Morning, everyone!" he said, grinning in the way he enjoyed, stretching his arms out. Vivi got up and moaned.

"I'm hungry," he said weakly. Steiner, who had been taking the last shift, agreed.

"I too could use nourishment," he stated. Even uptight knights needed breakfast. Garnet came out of the tent and looked around glumly.

"Food..."

Jason was up as well. He had a solution, though it was a somewhat grizzly one. It was better then nothing.

"Everyone? I know what we can have for breakfast," he informed them. Many pairs of hungry eyes followed him. Then Steiner saw where Jason was going, and started to loose his lunch from the day before. He had seen that dead plant spider body earlier, and was not looking forward to eating it. But sure enough, Jason showed them the ugly thing. The response was unanimous.

"EWW!"

"Aw, come on. Just pick around the organs and stuff. It's not poisonous, I know. I ran around in its body all last night scouting out territory, and I didn't feel a trace of an instinct suggesting anything lethal. Just eat!" Jason urged. Vivi's black face became rather gray as he considered this.

"No way, I'm not cooking that thing! I'd rather eat grass!" Vivi said defiantly, though with an obvious tone of sickness in his voice. Jason couldn't help but laugh a little, though it was probably more out of an attempt to make himself feel better then anything else. 

"Well, does anyone have a better idea?" he wondered. Garnet regarded the creature, and decided that there really wasn't anything else.

"Very well... I suppose I shall try one of those legs... Vivi, would you please heat it up for me?" Garnet asked. Vivi nodded reluctantly, and set a burst of fire upon the leg. The skin sort of peeled off in the process, exposing some meat. Slowly, carefully, she picked a small portion of it, and chewed on it. Her expression changed from revulsion to interest. As she finished her bite, she smiled.

"This is actually very good! Thank you, Jason, Vivi," she announced. Steiner was dumbfounded, but Zidane needed no further reassuring.

"Awesome! Cook me one of those legs, Vivi!"

"Okay."

Eventually, Steiner gave in, and within about half an hour they had eaten their fill. Then it was time to head out; Jason could have given instructions to everyone, but somehow he felt it better that Zidane do so.

"According to this map, there's a place called the Ice Cavern near here that can get us up above the Mist," Zidane informed the group. 

"Oh! I've read about the Ice Cavern. It's supposed to be a very beautiful place," announced Garnet. Steiner decided he had nothing to say, and Vivi really didn't. But Jason was curious about a few things.

"Zidane, how are we all going to get there?" he asked.

"What do you mean, Jason?"

"Well... um..." Jason tried to think of how he could explain this. He knew that there was a maximum of four people to a fighting party, so one of the group members was going to have to travel by his or her self. But that didn't make any sense...

"Jason, are you feeling okay?" Vivi wondered. Jason did look a little pale.

"Never mind. Let's go," he said, dismissing the subject. Everyone eyed him suspiciously, but they had come to expect weird things from him. Steiner was much more interested in Jason's oddness then the others, though.

"I shall be keeping an eye on you, Jason. The others may trust you, but I am not so sure," Steiner assured him as they all walked on. Jason thought about proclaiming innocence, but realized it wouldn't work. Steiner was quite the immovable person. 

The group explored most of the available area, gathering items and slaying beasts. Through some quirk, all five of them were able to fight at once. Jason tried acquiring some new beast forms, but didn't have any luck. Perhaps he might get some later, but for now it didn't really matter. What did matter was the fact that Jason kept feeling as though something bigger then the game was coming. He was so right.

The fact was, back on Earth, Jason was not the only person with psychic powers. There were a few others, though most of them didn't know how to tap their abilities. One of them, however, had been monitoring Jason for some time. And when all of the sudden Jason disappeared out of his psychic range, this person knew something was up. So, he took it upon himself to get a plane ticket to Jason's home, and do a little investigating. This would lead to many things, but most certainly none of them would be good.

When Jason and the others reached the Ice Cavern, he started shivering.

"Man, it sure looks cold in there," he commented. Vivi nodded a bit, while Zidane chuckled, and Garnet moved forward to investigate a frozen flower.

"Princess! I urge you not to touch anything," Steiner bade. Garnet retracted her hand, then nodded at him.

"You're right, I probably shouldn't."

"Hey guys, can we get going? I'm freezing my tail off here!" Zidane exclaimed. Jason nodded in agreement, and they were off. As they moved through the cavern, Jason thought he felt a strong presence in the area, but decided that he would be better off keeping the idea to himself. He didn't need everyone thinking that he was crazier then they already thought he was. It would turn out that he was right, though, once again.

With Vivi's help, they were able to gather all of the hidden items behind the ice. In particular, Jason acquired a hat, and not only did it make him warmer, but he also felt as though he had some new ability. Indeed, he gained the Alert ability, and that helped quite a bit as they progressed through the cave. What took everyone by surprise the most, however, was not Jason's strange new capacity to tell when things were sneaking up on the group. Rather, it was the moogle towards the end; it called them 'bastards'. And they all thought that moogles were supposed to be such friendly creatures!

When they reached the snowy cliff, Jason was more certain them ever that something was watching them, trying to put them to sleep. When his comrades started falling asleep, there could no longer be any doubt. And he certainly wasn't happy when he fell asleep himself. But instead of freezing to death, as he expected to, he managed to wake up with Zidane. 

"Ugh... what happened?" Jason managed. Zidane stood up and shook the snow off of his tail.

"I'm not sure. But hey, do you hear ringing?" he asked. Jason nodded slowly, and headed off in the direction of the bell.

"Hey, wait for me!" Zidane called, coming after him. The two headed on towards the Black Waltz's cavern.

"Hey, why aren't you two dead yet? The blizzard should have finished you!" it cackled. Jason felt waves of darkness emanating from the creature, and tried to stand firm, but Zidane did a far better job.

"So then, you're the one who caused this blizzard?" he demanded. The Waltz cackled and nodded.

"So what are you gonna do about it? Ha!"

Then it attacked.

Well that's chapter two. Whaddya think? Regardless, I'm continuing. Peace.


	3. Apocolypse rising

Well, I'm gonna try and tone Jason down, really, but since I'm kind of basing him on me, that's gonna be hard. I have a major issue with modesty. By the way, in the last chapter I made the other psyker appear to be a guy... but it's a girl. Anyway, here's chapter three.

The psyker who dropped in on Jason's home didn't have a real name; at least, not one that she could remember. Her parents had passed away long, long ago, and she couldn't remember what they had called her. So she just called herself Meg, which was short for Mega, in reference to her own opinion of her powers. People usually just called her Megan, though. 

Megan knocked on the door once, twice, thrice, and would have continued, but she felt Jason's mother approaching. When the door opened it revealed a forlorn face that was soaked with worry. It had been a long time since Jason disappeared, but not long enough to send his mother into hysterics. Not yet, anyway. Megan wasn't big on sympathies, so she cut right to the chase.

"Jason's not here, is he?" she asked. Jason's mother shook her head, then looked at Meg suspiciously. She saw a fourteen-year-old girl who appeared to be middle-eastern, Turkish perhaps. Her hair was black and down to her shoulders, and her eyes were a little distant. She was fairly tall at a height of 5'7", and had a somewhat stringy build.

"Who're you? I don't remember him telling me anything about a face like yours," she questioned. 

"Well, I know him from a class at school," Megan lied. "And since Jason is never late, I found it odd that he didn't come to school this morning. So I came over here as soon as school got out. Where is he?" she asked. Jason's mother held back tears and sighed.

"I... I don't know. He just disappeared last night. This isn't unlike him, because he often does this to go out for intense training, but he usually gives at least some warning or leaves a note. I just know that something has happened to him," she gushed, not entirely sure why she was saying this to such a complete stranger.

"Do you know where he was last seen?" Meg asked. Jason's mother scoffed.

"Why are you so interested? From what Jason tells me, no one at his school cared about him enough to find out this much."

"Um... well..." Meg stammered for a while. This was going nowhere.

"Okay ma'am. I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. I, like Jason, am a psyker." She paused there to wait for the response. It was surprisingly, and almost annoyingly neutral. However, Meg could hear Jason's mom think that it was so strange that Jason hadn't mentioned this. Surely he would have known?

"Anyway, I've been paying attention to Jason for quite a while. You see; he's one of the most powerful psykers on the planet. Then, he just disappeared. I may be able to figure out what happened to him, and how to bring him back."

There was a flicker of joy on Jason's mother's face, but it didn't last for long.

"Now, don't get the wrong idea. I'm not going to do this for you or anyone else. It's just that I have my own agenda of knowledge quenching to fulfill, and figuring out what happened to your son is part of it. And, if something is really wrong, I may be able to offer my services to you. For a price, of course," Meg concluded, smirking. Mother was appalled.

"A person as heartless as you has no place in my home," she announced. Megan just continued to chuckle.

"Look, I don't think you understand. You're going to let me have a look around your house," she proclaimed, staring into the mother's eyes. That was all it took for her to move aside and let Meg in. She chuckled to herself a bit as she looked around, then saw Jason's little brother. She grabbed him by the shoulder and looked him in the eye. Before he could even get a question out, she knew what she needed to. She released him in what was almost a push, then headed to the TV room.

Ah, here it was. The last place that Jason had been spotted. She looked around, saw and felt nothing, then sat to meditate on it. Surely she could sense something if she focused hard enough. Garry came in promptly, and being the simple-minded guy that he was, he just ignored Meg and switched on the Playstation. He was just now exploring the Village of Dali, and looking into the Black Mage assembly line. Meg suddenly decided to pay attention. She found it to be much more interesting than she would have suspected.

"Giant beast of ice, Sealion, come to me!" shouted the Waltz. Zidane and Jason both received a shock as the giant creature sprang up from the ice, and roared at them. 

"AH! What IS that thing?" Zidane shouted. Jason had already begun his scanning, but he found that it was not nearly as effective as it had been before. Perhaps this creature - a boss, maybe - was resistant to his ability. But he did get an accurate judgement of both creatures' HP. Seeing as how the Waltz had summoned the Sealion, he decided that it was the greater threat, and used his psychic attack on it. To his dismay, though, it did almost no damage. The thing must be mechanical! Zidane rushed up to it and started stealing some things, while Jason found himself taking the hits from the two bosses.

Of course he wasn't happy about this, so Jason quickly used a Plant Spider form technique, and started hammering on the Waltz with thunder magic. Then the Sealion smashed it with a massive fin, and another one of Jason's creatures fell. Zidane stole everything he needed to from the Waltz, though, and quickly finished it with his Mage Masher. 

"Ugh... Sealion, kill them for me," were its last words. That never came to pass, though. As Zidane stole, Jason kept using his psychic attack to hammer on the beast, using a potion to heal himself or Zidane whenever it was necessary. When all was said and done, Zidane had a new dagger, and the battle was done. The blizzard subsided, and things started to warm up a little. Then, they heard a pair of eerie voices.

"You may have beaten No. 1, but No. 2 and No. 3 will destroy you!"

Jason instantly knew who they were: Zorn and Thorn. They disappeared before he could figure out what they were talking about, though. 

"No. 2 and 3? Whatever," Zidane mumbled. Jason considered telling the others what he knew, but decided against it. He didn't want to distort the reality of this new world too badly,

"Hey, you did pretty good back there, Jason," Zidane said in congratulations. Jason nodded in response. "You did too. Whoever would have thought that a dagger would be hiding in the scales of a beast like that?"

Zidane shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm glad I checked! Come on, let's go wake up the others."

***

"YOU! You touched the Princess, didn't you!" accused Steiner.

"Woh! Calm down, Rusty!" Zidane said. Garnet calmed Steiner down.

"I'm fine, Steiner. Is everyone else okay?" she asked, looking around. Vivi made himself visible, though his face was completely white.

"I'm r-r-really c-cold, you g-guys," he said. Zidane snickered a bit, and it was all Jason could do to keep from laughing himself. Dagger quickly cleared his face off, and then Steiner posed more questions.

"Well then, what did happen, scoundrel?" he demanded.

"Nothing happened. It's all cool, Rusty."

"STOP CALLING ME RUSTY!" he shouted, jumping up and down like an agitated frog. Everyone laughed a bit, and Steiner grew red in the face as he tried to regain his composure.

"Very well. What about you, Jason? Did you see anything that happened?" he asked. While Zidane looked worried, Jason just shook his head.

"I don't know if you heard Zidane, but nothing happened. Do you still have snow in your ear? You did fall head first into the snow bank..."

Once again, there was a round of laughter, but this time Steiner just grew angry.

"I will not be made a mockery of! I know not from where you come, Jason, but I will make sure that you never see it again!" he shouted, trying to assert authority. Once again, Garnet calmed him down, and Jason just thought to himself of how futile Steiner's attempts would be. He wasn't going home anyway, in all likelihood.

"Okay everyone, I think that we're all cold and wet, and we should get going," Garnet said, her sensibility reigning for the moment. Everyone agreed, and the group headed out of the cavern.

"And that's called a Black Mage, huh?" Meg asked Garry. He just nodded and kept playing, trying to forget the fact that his brother had disappeared. 

"And that stuff's called Mist?" she questioned.

"Yup."

"They're making Black Mages from mist... who's making them?" she asked.

"Well, we don't know yet, but it seems as though this place called Alexandria Castle is... weird..."

"Yes indeed. Seems like they'd make a powerful army..."

"Probably."

"Hmm...."

Well, that's chapter three. You like? Hate? I wanna KNOW!!!


	4. The kiss of the Siren

It was decided. Garnet's new name would be Dagger.

Steiner was, of course, very upset.

But the group let it pass soon enough, and they entered the Village of Dali. (On the way, Jason acquired a new spell - Carve Spider form. To his slight dismay, it replaced the Plant Spider form, but it wasn't that bad.) The innkeeper stared at Vivi, but Zidane assumed that he was looking at Dagger. Jason could tell a few other things, though.

"Hey man, I know she's cute, but it's rude to stare," Zidane said.

"Oh... I wasn't staring at her. Uh, your room is right over there," he said, pointing to the room. With some thanks, they all headed in, though Jason gave the innkeeper a long, hard look first. 

"Uh oh... only four beds," Zidane said somewhat suggestively. They all looked at one another for a while, and then Zidane sighed.

"Okay, I guess I'm sleeping on the floor," he announced. Suddenly, they heard snoring. Vivi was flat asleep on his bed. Jason smiled in Vivi's direction, thinking that he was a pretty cute kid. Then he decided to tell the others.

"Hey guys, I have something I need to tell you," he said.

"Yes, Jason?" Dagger asked. 

"Well you see, um, I have a bad feeling about this town. Something wasn't quite right in that innkeeper's head... he seemed really paranoid, like he was afraid of something in the room. And call me crazy-"

"Crazy," Steiner said.

"Erherm. Call me crazy, but I think that it was Vivi," Jason finished. Steiner was appalled, Zidane became pensive and Dagger became worried.

"That's preposterous! What could possibly be the matter with Master Vivi?" Steiner asked. Dagger tried a calmer query.

"Jason, what makes you think that this is going on?" she asked. Jason decided to answer both questions.

"Steiner, Vivi is a black mage. Maybe that makes people in small towns nervous?"

"You will address me as Captain Steiner, Jason!" he demanded. Jason sighed.

"Whatever. Anyway, I am a psyker. That guy's thoughts were pretty muddy, but I know he was concerned because of Vivi for some reason or another."

There was a moment of silence as the people considered Jason's opinions.

"Look, I'm not so sure of myself to be honest. I'm going out for a walk; Zidane, you can have my bed. I won't be back for awhile," Jason announced.

"Hey man, are you sure? I mean, I'm fine sleeping on the floor," Zidane offered. Jason just shook his head and headed out. "You stay here. I'll be back after you all fall asleep," he said, leaving. The others all gave him brief good-byes, but they didn't stay up much longer. All of them were very, very tired. 

"Wow... what a game," Meg said to herself. It seemed so much more real to her than other games did. Garry, fixed on the game as he normally was, didn't even notice when Meg disappeared. And Garry's mother didn't notice, because until Meg vanished, she just walked around placidly, not paying attention to anything. Once Meg was gone, she forgot that it had ever happened.

"Oh my God! What happened?" Meg shouted to no one. She was standing in the Mist-collection room for the Black Mage machine. She recognized the room soon enough, and nodded softly.

"So this is what happened to Jason, no doubt. Well, let's see if I can find him," she said to herself, closing her eyes and sitting down. It didn't take her long to sense him walking around in the town of Dali that she had been transported to. She stood up, and headed out. That was when she encountered a night shift.

"Hey, who're you? What're you doing here, girl? Shouldn't you be in bed?" he demanded. She just chuckled at him, which made him even angrier. But just as he was about to lunge at her in fury, her eyes flared at him and he stopped in his tracks.

"Move aside," she ordered, and he flung himself against the wall, getting knocked out cold. She walked past, still chuckling, though somewhat upset at her new outfit. She wore a white skirt that stopped just above her knees, rather girlish shoes, and a soft blue blouse. 

"Actually, I could use this to my advantage," she determined, heading up to the surface. "I actually look pretty good."

Shortly after, she walked out into the night, and bumped right into Jason. They both took a step back, staring each other in the face. It was a typical psyker strategy for such encounters, in an attempt to scan for some sort of aggressive motive. They both found that they had run into a fellow psyker, and their stances suddenly changed. Meg stood casually and smirked, while Jason just looked at her awkwardly. This was the first time he had ever met another psyker.

"Mega?" he asked. She nodded. "Call me Meg, or Megan, though. K, Jason?" she responded. He wore an odd smile, then nodded. "Okay, Meg. Let's see... you were looking for me and got sucked in just the way I did?" he asked. A nod came in return.

"Indeed. You are a very special psyker, Jason, even more so now that we're here in Gaia. You are now the second most powerful psychic in the world," she announced.

"And what makes you the better psyker?" he asked. She glared at him, and he instantly felt her trying to control his movements. Of course, it was a test to see who had the stronger mind control ability, and it really wasn't something he practiced. His only option would be to use his psychic attack, but he didn't want to kill the only other person from Earth on this planet. So for a while he engaged in this psychic arm wrestling match, and held out for a while, but he started losing it rather rapidly. So he decided on another strategy. He knew that if he willed himself to do a particular behavior that wasn't what she wanted him to do, rather than directly fight it, he might have a better chance. So that's what he did; the problem was that the only thing that could come to mind was to kiss her.

__

Oh well, better than letting her have her way with me, he decided. When the kiss came so easy, though, and it felt so right when they wrapped their arms around each other, he knew he had been had.

"You made me kiss you?" he demanded. She smiled innocently and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess I'm more irresistible than I thought, huh? Come on... it's not like you didn't want to anyway," she said. Jason had to consider that for a moment.

"Fine. No point in trying to keep secrets from a fellow psyker. And I guess you are a better psyker than me, for now. I'm out of practice in mind control though. There are plenty of other things I can do, let me assure you," he said defiantly.

"Oh, I know! You could have fried my brain, or called upon some beast to attack me. But you wouldn't do that to me, cause I'm too sweet. Right?"

Jason didn't bother answering. This was ridiculous. It was obvious now that Meg had plans to use Jason in some plan or another, and he would have no part in it.

"Look, if you try to take control of me again, I swear I will fry your brain. I'm dead serious," he said, staring her in the eye. She knew that he wasn't kidding, but she wasn't deterred.

"You'll come around eventually. You can't afford to let me die. Because I am the only one who knows how to get you back home," she announced. Jason started scanning her mind, but he found that it was blocked off somehow.

"Another reason I'm a better psyker than you. I can block off parts of my mind from peering eyes. Now, do you want to get back to Earth or not?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes, of course. So what do you want me to do?" he wondered

"I'm so glad you asked me that," she said, putting an arm around his neck. She started whispering in his ear. What he would hear would totally change his perspective on this new universe that they had stumbled across.

Oooh... what's gonna happen? Is Megan evil, or is Jason a jerk, or are the BOTH evil, or just confused little kids? What do YOU think? It doesn't matter, because you'll find out soon enough. But I'd sure appreciate your reviews anyway! Thanks!


	5. Combat maneuvers

Here's chapter five... may you thoroughly enjoy.

Steiner woke up early to look for some way to get Dagger back to the castle. Vivi got up slightly later to check out the windmill, and Dagger woke up out of pure instinct, and decided to go exploring. None of them registered the fact that Jason was nowhere to be seen.

Zidane woke to the sound of Dagger's beautiful voice and decided to look for her. When he saw Jason leaning idly against the wall on the outside of the inn, though, he decided to initiate some conversation.

"Yo, Jason. What's going on?" he asked. Jason sighed and shook his head.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. I've been standing here thinking for a few hours," he said. Zidane was definitely surprised by that, but he didn't let it show. Instead he just leaned against the wall next to him.

"Try me," he challenged. Jason chuckled a bit.

"That is one of the things I've been thinking about... whether the universe would crumble if I told you. But, judging by the fact that Megan never saw me in the game... that means this isn't the game...unless she transported us both..."

Zidane stared. What was Jason babbling about now?

"Gaia to Jason? Do you read?" he asked. Jason snapped out of it.

"Sorry. Okay, I guess I can tell you. But you won't believe me. You see, I'm not from this world," he said, plain as day.

"Right, sure you are. Some inter-dimensional mix-up, right?" Zidane replied. Jason nodded.

"And where I come from, this world is part of a game."

Zidane laughed out loud.

"You're right, I don't believe you. Do you realize that you are crazy?" he asked, looking him in the eye. Jason stared back, his face stone serious. That really irked Zidane.

"Okay... logically speaking, this gives us two options. Either you're telling the truth, or you're stone-cold crazy," Zidane determined. Jason chuckled a bit.

"It's possible that both of those are true. But the fact is that this isn't a game anymore. And, I have some rather important information concerning Vivi," he said. Zidane wasn't really in the mood, though.

"Hey, I appreciate the offer, but I've heard enough. Why don't you go find yourself a sensible girl to straighten you out, okay? I have to go look for Dagger," Zidane said, ending the conversation. Jason just sighed softly. What would Megan's next move be?

As Zidane left in search of the Princess, Jason thought over what he had been told. Black mages were being mass-produced in an underground facility beneath Dali. They were being made of the substance called Mist, and were most likely designed to be tools of war for Alexandria. He knew it wasn't lies, because he had seen the facility for himself. Right now, Megan was going through a series of processes that would land her in control of the Black Mage Army, or at least part of it. That was what she said she was doing, anyway.

Jason didn't know how many people she could control with her psychic abilities at once, but she would probably need to control just one. Yes, it made sense. She would control the foreman of the operation, have him tell anyone else that she was an apprentice, and then redirect the production of the Black Mages. Perhaps she could inform them that their funding had been cut, but they were still expected to make the mages. As a result, they might burn down the cargo ship in an act of revolution and commandeer the things. But how would they control them?

There were other possibilities, but Jason really didn't have time to think them over. What he needed to do was figure out how he would respond to whatever it was that Megan was trying to do. Last night, she had left him with the proposition that together they could take over the Black Mages and conquer the planet. Of course she didn't expect him to answer immediately, but she didn't stick around and wait. Rather, she headed back down into the facility, possibly to set up a base of operations. Jason wasn't concerned with that, though. What he wanted to know was why a fourteen-year-old girl wanted to rule the world. What could she possibly gain from it?

Maybe it had something to do with returning home to Earth. His mom really did miss him...and though Jason didn't really miss her, he didn't like the thought of his mother in agony. Then again, he had no assurance that Meg could successfully conquer even the mages, let alone the planet. And if she did, could she really get them back to Earth? And there was another thing he had to consider; why was she so interested in him? After all, she was looking for him, even if he was still on Earth. Could her ultimate goal be to conquer the Earth? Once again, the question was why she wanted that. There was no personal gain, really, and Megan did not strike him as an altruist looking for peace and love across the globe. No psyker was.

There was one last thing Jason needed to consider. This was a four-CD game, and there was no way that a single continent with only three powerful nations could take up the entire game. There had to be endless other places to explore, people to see, and enemies to defeat. Surely the ultimate evil of the game was not Queen Brahne and her mages. So, what was?

"I'll have to figure this out later...I need to pay attention to the here and now. If Megan gets too powerful, then my group will just have to defeat her. If not, then so be it. I don't have any way of getting back to Earth, so I'll just go along with the others, and see if I can help them in anyway, I guess. Maybe I should take Zidane's advice and look for some company... I could be here for a long time..."

With that, he pushed himself off the wall and headed for the pub. It was the only place that he had any chance of meeting someone, really. The facility was supposed to be off-limits. When he entered the building, he was surprised to see Steiner present, and stacking wood no less. But what really caught Jason off guard was Megan was sitting next to the tender, right there behind the counter! He quickly assumed that Megan was, for some reason or another, pretending to be the tender's sister. He placed himself down at the bar, forgetting about Steiner, and questioned her.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were off trying to conquer the planet?" he asked. Megan smiled at him.

"Speaking of which, have you come up with an answer yet? By the way, I'm here because I've already initiated phase one of the plan. Now all I have to do is wait for the airship to show up, and I'll have a supply of soldiers all nice and ready for me. Then I can move on to conquer other areas. Isn't that nifty?"

Steiner was completely unaware of the conversation. That was because, multitalented as she was, Meg had switched the conversation over to telepathy. Jason kept his head down, and Steiner never noticed him. Soon enough, the tender saw him out, and it was just a chat between Megan and Jason.

"Listen, I don't want any part in your bid for world dominion. You can beg all you want, but I have a sneaky suspicion that you want something more than that. You would have sought me out even if I had still been on Earth, so obviously your goal has something to do with our very own planet. But I see it this way: if you can get us back there, then you'll just have some evil plot in mind after taking over that place, the same one for this place. Whichever one you decide that you want to take over, I don't want any part in it. I know that you have more in mind than simple dominion. I just want to find a way back home, nothing more, nothing else. And unless you can give that to me in a simple package, I want nothing to do with you. Got it?"

They stared at each other for a while.

"Wow, you've certainly thought this over, haven't you? You really shouldn't lie to me, though. You know I can tell when you do. You want more than to be back on Earth. Even a regular human could tell that you didn't walk into a pub without a reason. You're lonely. I can definitely satisfy that craving, but there will be a price. You'll have to help me in my campaign, and if you really wish, I'll send you back home when it's all over. But somehow, I doubt that you'll want to."

She winked at him. He responded with a low growl; he was not going to fall for this.

"I can find a girl anywhere. I don't need you. Good luck," he said sarcastically, ending the telepathy and getting up to leave. Megan quickly changed tones and called after him.

"Wait a minute, Jason. I want to make something perfectly clear."

He stopped and turned around.

"Make it quick. I've got a mage to rescue," he announced, remembering Vivi and the Black Mage program.

"If you're not with me, you're against me. As a fellow psyker, I see you as a threat if you aren't my ally. I will have to destroy you eventually if you don't join me," she said. Jason chuckled.

"Once again, I say good luck. You'll definitely need it."

And with that, he was gone. Megan smiled softly; the poor boy had no idea what he was getting into. At this rate he would be dead even if he did ally himself with her. But she had more important things to busy herself with. She pulled a picture out form her small handbag and gazed into it. It was a picture of her brother; she hadn't even known of his existence until a few years ago, when her caregivers stumbled across some old information left behind by her parents. She found out soon enough what had happened to him, and what she would have to do to rescue him.

"Soon, brother, I'll have everything ready."

He couldn't hear her, but she didn't care. She placed the picture back in her bag and left the pub, returning the tender to a state of self-control. With that done, Megan headed out past the small farm to the cargo-loading spot, and disappeared beneath the surface to oversee the production of her army.

Still liking? I hope so.


	6. This ship heading to-Treno!?

Chapter six:

Yes, I have taken way too long to get back to this. Anyway, to answer some questions. How does Jason keep from going insane? He chooses who's thoughts he listens to and who's he doesn't listen to. And why does Meg want to conquer things? Oh, you'll just have to keep reading. Wouldn't want to spoil the story, would I?

"I was so scared... I couldn't do anything..." Vivi said, looking down at the floor. Zidane and Dagger tried to comfort him while Jason kept looking around somewhat nervously. This place stank of Megan's psychic presence. What had she done down here?

"Next time, try saying something aggressive. It surprises the attacker and empowers you," Zidane offered. Vivi looked up at him.

"Like what, Zidane?"

"Like... Get off me, you scumbag!" he shouted, jumping into a defensive stance. That caught everyone by surprise, even Jason, who hadn't been concentrating. Vivi nodded.

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind," he said softly. Zidane nodded, looking proud.

"Anyway, Vivi, why don't you go back to the hotel. I'm going to go on ahead to see what's going on here," Zidane said. Vivi shook his head.

"I wanna come with you... I wanna find out more about this place. They thought I had something to do with it, so..."

"I got it, Vivi."

"I, too, would like to come along. It's obvious this place has something to do with Alexandria Castle," Dagger said, glancing to the barrel with the mark of her castle. 

"What about you, Jason?" Vivi asked, seeing the nervous look on his face.

"Oh... sure, I'll come with," he said, knowing perfectly well what this place was all about, but thinking it would be better to keep it to himself. He couldn't give that much thought though, because he knew that Megan was about to make her next move. He had a sneaking suspicion that they would have an encounter soon.

The group moved through the hallway to the next room, where they saw the strange machine making... eggs?

"What is that thing?" Zidane wondered aloud. Jason repressed the urge to blurt it out. His gut told him it would be better this way.

"It seems to be making-" Dagger began.

"Eggs. I agree," Jason cut in. She was off put for a moment, then remembered he was supposed to be psychic.

"Where did you find Jason, anyway?" Dagger asked Zidane.

"The Evil Forest. No clue how he got there-"

"I was dropped there by an inter-dimensional mix up," Jason put in. Everyone sighed. Jason pointed to the door leading behind the machine.

"Look. Something's coming out of the cracks in that door," he said, trying to change the subject.

"Mist..." Zidane said. The group approached the door and flung it open. They were immediately attacked by a group of ghosts.

"Ahh! I'm scared of ghosts!" Vivi said. Dagger patted his shoulder reassuringly, and Zidane and Jason got rid of the things. Jason found that his attack had little effect, which made sense; how could a ghost have a brain? However, he did have a bit of fun tying it up with the silk from a Carve Spider he created. With that out of the way, they moved into the back room.

"That machine is sucking up mist... and turning it into those eggs?" Zidane speculated. The others were at a loss for words. Jason nodded in agreement, though. They headed on through the building, examining the various parts of the assembly line. Meanwhile, Steiner badgered the Old Man Morrison for information. Finally he was informed that the cargo ship had already landed, and with that he dashed off. Meg was overseeing the crating of the Black Mages, and would soon be commandeering the ship for her own purposes. First, she would move on to Treno and rally support from the nobles... she would need funding for her mission. Eventually she would sneak into Alexandria Castle and take over the Queen... then it would be easy enough to defeat the other nations of this continent. Yes... funding for infiltration supplies. After that, it would be simple conquest. Little did Meg suspect that Brahne was already being used as a puppet.

"Hey, what are you doing!?" Dagger exclaimed as Zidane shoved the others into the assembly line.

"No time to explain, someone's coming!"

Before anyone had a chance to argue, the four of them had been crated up and placed in a barrel. If Megan had been paying more attention, she might have noticed the psychic presence of the others in that last barrel, but she was busy getting up to the helm of the ship. She did see that man, Steiner, though, trotting toward the loading dock with the look of a determined ball of lard, bouncing as he went with his elbows plastered to his side. She chuckled at the funny sight, but paid him no mind. Just as soon as that last barrel was loaded, she could leave. Knowing the people here would be competent enough to load it themselves, or at least hoping it, she returned to the helm to prepare for takeoff. 

The appearance of Steiner, waving his sword about like a madman, screaming "PRINCESS!" at the top of his lungs, scared the men out of their wits.

"That guy's crazy!"

"Run!"

They abandoned the last barrel and rushed underground. Steiner reached it, huffing and puffing, grumbling about mendicants. Suddenly, the barrel moved.

"What's this? A moving barrel?"

He examined it further, seeing that the mark of Alexandria Castle was plastered on it.

"What could her Majesty possibly be doing in a run-down village like this?" he wondered. The barrel shook again.

"I've had quite enough of this!" Steiner declared, poking it with his sword. It shook violently and fell over, spilling out Zidane, Dagger, Vivi and Jason. Zidane rubbed his ribs.

"OUCH! You stabbed me, Rusty!" he jested. Steiner was infuriated.

"You'll have much worse done to you when I'm through with you. Princess! What were you doing in that barrel?" he demanded. Dagger stood and shook her head out.

"It's kind of complicated. You see-"

"I cannot allow any of you to go any further," a cold, mechanical voice declared. All eyes turned to the floating form of Black Waltz 2.

"Princess, come with me. I will kill the others for you," it said, sneering at them. Dagger was taken aback, Vivi looked broken hearted from seeing something like a black mage being so mean, Steiner was has arrogant and ignorant self, Zidane got ready to beat it up, and Jason suddenly realized that Megan was onboard the ship. She really was commandeering an army of those Black Mages... but did it really concern Jason? Not as much as the Waltz did.

"Wait. Who sent you? Why are you here to take me?" Dagger asked. 

"Princess, stay there while I kill the others!" it said.

"It doesn't want to talk... let's beat the stuffing out of it!" Zidane declared. Jason agreed, and prepared to use some creature forms. The Waltz zipped about them a bit before charging into them.

The battle progressed rather simply. Zidane stole some things from it, Dagger healed whenever necessary, Steiner and Vivi used magic, and Jason used his Goblin Form. He wanted to save some MP, because he had a feeling that another big fight would be coming up. Soon enough they had defeated it, and Jason looked up to see Megan staring down at him from on top of the airship. She smirked.

"Last chance to join me Jason. Looks like we're going our separate ways, unless you're coming to Treno," she said. Steiner cursed under his breath. This ship was supposed to be going to Alexandria, or to Zidane and Dagger, Lindblum.

Zidane looked at Jason. "You know who this crazy girl is?" he asked. Jason wasn't really listening, but he nodded.

"Meg, I want nothing to do with you. I happen to know that my friends here have some very important business to take care of in Lindblum, and I intend to get them there!" he shouted. She chuckled a bit.

"Catch me if you can!"

With that, she turned around and went to start the airship up. Jason was off in a flash, and Zidane, trusting his instinct that this was their best chance to get to Lindblum, followed. Steiner, not wanting Zidane to get away, chased after him. Vivi and Dagger didn't want to be left alone, so they headed in pursuit as well. They all managed to get up on the ship before it took off, but they encountered some problems. Meg had turned all deckhands to stopping them. With no choice other than defending themselves, the group slashed through the mass of Black Mages. Jason moved the fastest though, running past most of them. When he got up to the top of the stairs, a group of Mages circled around him, and suddenly he realized that he had made a serious mistake here. Meg left one mage to pilot the ship, and she approached Jason casually.

"Well, well. Didn't I tell you that your actions would land you in trouble, Jason? You don't seem to have a way out now. And of course, you've expressed a lack of interest in joining me. As such, I no longer have use for you," she said. Jason smirked.

"Don't lie to a fellow psyker, Mega. It's very unbecoming. I know that you can't accomplish your goals on Earth without me. Unless you can find a replacement here on Gaia, which really doesn't seem that likely."

Meg let a hint of rage show on her face. "I can always get some other psyker back on earth and train him," she said defiantly, but unsure of herself. Jason shrugged.

"Fine. Kill me. But keep in mind I can do the same to you instantaneously," he said, eyes dilating a bit as he focused on his attack. She showed a bit of fear, but once again did not let it stay.

"You can't kill me either, though, because you need me to get back to Earth," she proclaimed.

"And why would I want to go back? If you're going to be there, it doesn't sound too appealing," he responded. Voices came up from the floor below.

"What's going on up there?"

"Hello, Jason?"

"Are you okay?"

He took note of that, but more pressing matters were at hand.

"If that's how you feel, why haven't you killed me already?" Meg wondered.

"That's a good question. Maybe, because unlike you, I happen to have a sense of pity. Also, I don't think you can win in your bid for dominion, or in this little standoff. Call off the mages, or I might change my mind about pity."

"Jason, you really are stupid if you think I can't conquer this world. You have no idea what you're messing with-"

That was all she got to say. Jason had heard enough, and sent a blast of energy through her mind. It wasn't enough to kill her, but they needed to get to Lindblum. She fell limp to the floor, and the mages seemed disoriented for a while. But soon enough they went back to their tasks, and the mage at the helm changed course for Alexandria. Jason called down the ladder.

"Come on up you guys. The situation is stable," he said. The others climber the ladder, Vivi looking depressed as ever.

"None of them will talk to me. It's like they don't even notice that I'm there," he said softly. Dagger and Steiner tried to comfort him, while Zidane moved to the helm to change course to Lindblum; he knew this ship would be heading to Alexandria, both by instinct and by his knowledge of what the ground looked like from an airship. Jason looked over Meg's body.

"No, I don't want to get rid of her yet... I might want to go home when all this is over... and then I really could use her. I just hope she can stay alive and out of trouble until then," he said to himself. He went into the helm to speak with Zidane.

"We need to set down. Megan has to be dropped off here," he said. Zidane looked over at him inquisitively.

"Yeah? What's with her anyway?" Zidane asked.

"She's a very powerful psyker, like me. We have different qualities to our abilities, of course, but she is still very dangerous. I only stunned her for a while, because she's going to be of use later on, but only if she's alive. But keeping her with us will be a big mistake. So we need to drop her off here," he said. Zidane shrugged. "Sure. We probably should go back down to get some rest. Run it past the others."

Soon enough everyone knew what was going on. They all agreed that it had been a rough day and they could use some rest. But how to keep the mages from taking off with the ship? It probably had a schedule to keep. Zidane decided that he would stay there while the others rested up. After all, he only needed to drink a potion and was fine. Everyone else needed to rest up for his or her energy.

In a few hours, they were all back on the ship, and Megan had been dropped off in Dali. The rest of the trip would be quite an adventure. 


	7. The Star Cannon

Chapter seven:

Did I mention that the only things I own are Jason and Megan and all associated titles? Never mind - I'm sure you knew that. Enjoy the chapter!

Zidane and Dagger realized quite easily that Steiner would not be happy about the trip to Lindblum, and would probably not allow it. That was where Jason came in. He had the bright idea of putting certain memories inside of Steiner's head that never really happened but would make things understandable. Until they reached Lindblum, Jason could fiddle with Steiner to think he was going to Alexandria. He would figure out what other memory to replace that with when they got there; if he made anything solid now, it might not run together with what actually happened, and all sorts of confusing things would happen.

Of course, confusion seemed to be the order of the day for those involved. For instance, when Megan woke up to find herself back in Dali, she was very confused. Hadn't she been on her way to Treno with an army of Black Mages at her disposal? Wait... Jason! She groaned loudly, getting out of the bed she found herself in. A door slammed shut as the innkeeper scuttled away. The freak had been watching her in her sleep... she decided that he would have to pay. Plans could wait. She was still wearing her outfit of skirt and blouse and such, so that was good. Still, she headed out into the main room and stared the innkeeper in the face.

"Y-yes? May I help you?" he asked, pretending to have been snoozing.

"Don't look at people when they're sleeping. It gets really annoying," she declared.

"What are you talking about?"

Before he could figure it out, he found himself unconscious, because for some reason he had just flung himself and his chair down onto the ground as hard as he could. Of course it was Megan who made him do that, but he would never know. With that out of the way, Meg needed to figure out what to do next. Production should still be going on for a few more batches, and another cargo ship should arrive soon. Let Jason do whatever he wanted to with his silly friends. She had a city to win over.

On the cargo ship, things were running smoothly. Steiner was standing at a placid parade rest, with Jason close by, making sure nothing happened. Vivi tried talking with the black mages on board some more, but still received no response. Dagger tried to comfort him, and Zidane continued to pilot the ship towards South Gate. However, the mages soon noticed that something was wrong, and gathered up at the deck. Jason also sensed that something was amiss. Close behind them was indeed something dangerous; Black Waltz Three was coming after them.

"Kwahahahaha! The Princess is mine!" the Black Waltz cackled to itself as it leapt from the nose of the airship, flying after the cargo ship. It overtook the ship soon enough, and landed on the bow. Jason knew then that they would end up fighting this thing, so he turned to Steiner and snapped him back to reality.

"Steiner! Something's threatening the Princess!" he shouted to him, pointing at the Waltz. Steiner came around and growled angrily. While this happened, the mages on board all closed in around it, and it let out a menacing laugh.

"You intend to stop me? You are nothing but mindless dolls! You want to protect them? Kwahahahaha!" It raised its left hand, which surged with energy, and before a single mage could throw a fireball at him, he launched a massive blast of lightning at them. Mages were flung about the ship, and boxes were blown open, sending still more of them to their end after a long fall to the ground. Vivi saw all of this, and started shaking uncontrollably.

"Are you alright?" Dagger asked him.

"That monster!" he shouted, rushing out to confront the Waltz. 

"I shall assist you, Master Vivi!" said Steiner as he dashed out after him.

"Jason, let's go!" Zidane urged. "Dagger, you steer the ship. Let's get to Lindblum!"

"Right..." she said, taking the wheel from him. He and Jason ran after Steiner, who was standing right behind Vivi, who was shouting at the Waltz.

"How could you do that to them? Weren't they your friends?" he demanded. 

"You compare me to those lowly black mage soldiers? Kwahahahaha!" 

The others could barely contain their rage, and Jason had heard his fill. Before he could express his own feelings, though, Vivi made a move.

"You... won't get away with this!" he shouted.

"What, so the Princess' body guards have all gathered here to stop me? How convenient! I will kill you all!"

"Who are you?" Steiner demanded.

"Knowing will do you know good, since you're about to die!"

Vivi surged with anger, and before he knew it he was glowing bright purple. Jason stared at him with fascination until Vivi unleashed a double blast of icy fury on the Waltz. It staggered back, surprised at the child's ferocity, but was not daunted for long. 

"Thundara!" it shouted. The four of them were knocked down by this massive blast of lightning, and Steiner found himself almost incapacitated. The poor man was wearing metal armor, Jason noticed; it had to have done nearly twice as much damage to him. But he would worry about that later. Right now, he was determined to defeat this creature.

"Now I'm mad!" Zidane shouted. He rushed up to the creature and slashed its face, but in return it knocked him back with its staff. Jason stood and sensed massive power coming from Vivi. What must he be feeling? Before he could figure out much more, the Waltz had already shot a fireball at him. Jason took a few steps back, glaring at the thing angrily.

"Kwahahahaha! Your powers are pathetic!" it declared. 

"Shut UP!" Jason shouted. He had heard enough. This thing was really pissing him off, and he was going to make it pay. For hurting Vivi, and his friend Zidane, and because he really didn't have a choice if he wanted to live. Before he knew it, he found new energy surging in his body. He was glowing purple; what was this? And then there was Vivi, who again launched a double blast of ice at the Waltz. This time it didn't seem to do as much, and the thing quickly countered by knocking Vivi down. Zidane was up, and Steiner was getting to his feet slowly, but the Waltz looked like it was ready for both of them. It was going to be up to Jason now. He knew that his psychic attack wouldn't work very well, but with this strange new energy of his, he could feel something new. The words came to him, and he used it.

"Star Cannon!" he shouted. He held one hand above his head, the other one pointing two fingers to his brow. The Waltz looked on with terror as the space around Jason started to warp. Finally, a glowing ball of iridescent energy appeared above his head, and flashed brightly before launching about ten spheres of glowing rock at the Waltz. It held up its staff to defend against the damage, but it did little. All of them smashed into its body. The ball of energy disappeared, and suddenly Jason's purple glow was gone. And so was his breath. He fell to the floor, exhausted. When he looked up at the Waltz, he expected to see that his attack had totaled it. Unfortunately, it still seemed to have enough energy to form a ball of lightning. Before it could hurl this weapon at Jason, however, Zidane snuck around and stuck his dagger in its neck. Steiner charged forward and stabbed the thing in its gut. It bent over, but knocked Steiner away and jumped up in the air, causing Zidane to fall down. It seemed as though it had run away.

"Broken, it is!" Thorn shouted.

"We made its magic too powerful!" Zorn agreed, jumping up to look at the returning Waltz.

"Unstable, the ship becomes! Sit down!"

"The Black Waltz is coming back! It must have captured the Princess!" Zorn exclaimed.

"Did it, really?" Thorn wondered.

"It is coming too fast! It has gone crazy!" Zorn shouted.

"Run away, we must!" Thorn suggested.

"We must run away!" Zorn agreed. The twin jesters jumped out of the airship they had been tailing the cargo-ship in and seemed to fly back to Alexandria Castle. Meanwhile, the Black Waltz 3 commandeered the ship and kicked in to full throttle, determined to destroy everyone on that ship.

"I exist only to kill. I exist only to kill. I exist only to kill. I exist only to... kill!" it shouted. Meanwhile, on the ship, the group was starting to recollect itself.

"You okay, Jason?" Zidane asked. Jason stood up slowly.

"I think so. What was that energy?" he wondered, seeing Vivi's glow had also disappeared. The child was now staring at a hat, one that had belonged to a black mage. It was stuck on a broken railing of the ship. 

"You mean the purple glow?" Zidane asked as Steiner returned to the cabin.

"Yeah. Do you know what it was?" Jason asked. Zidane nodded.

"It's called Trance. A surge of emotion is what causes it, and it gives you lots of power. In your case, it looks like it gives you some new abilities. That was an amazing attack!" Zidane said. Jason chuckled a little.

"I didn't even know what I was doing, really," he assured. 

"Sure. Anyway, I'm gonna go check on Rusty and Dagger, make sure that he's not bothering her. Why don't you see if you can talk to Vivi?" Zidane suggested. Jason nodded - it sounded like a good idea to him. As Zidane returned to the cabin, Jason approached Vivi and crouched down next to him.

"Hey, Vivi," he started. Vivi didn't turn to look at him, but he responded.

"...Hey." 

"Don't worry, Vivi. We'll make sure to get to the bottom of this. Whoever made the Waltzes is going to pay," he said. He didn't know if Vivi heard him, because not even his thoughts seemed to change that much. Before he could continue, though, shouting could be heard from the cabin.

"What do you mean we're heading to Lindblum!" Steiner demanded, outraged.

"Listen, Rusty, there's nothing you can do about it. Dagger wants to go to Lindblum, got it?" Zidane tried to explain. Steiner made noises of frustration. 

"My duty is to protect the Princess, and I can best do that by returning her to Alexandria! Princess, I beg of you, turn the ship around," he pleaded. Zidane gave a sigh and headed back out to the deck.

"Steiner... I'm not going back," she said, keeping a calm and determined voice. 

"But... but..." he stammered. 

"Hey! The Black Waltz is chasing after us! Punch it, Dagger!" Zidane shouted from outside. 

"What?" she wondered. Zidane dashed in.

"Steiner, pull that lever over there!" he commanded.

"What? We should turn around if the thing is coming after us!" Steiner said.

"We can't outmaneuver him in this old piece of junk! We've gotta rush through South Gate and lose him there!" Zidane explained.

"But what if the gate closes on us?" 

"Pull the lever and that won't happen!"

"Pull the lever, Steiner," Dagger said. Steiner gave in and did so, giving the cargo ship a huge boost of speed. But still the Black Waltz overtook them, a blast of lightning in its hand. A crackle from the lightning sent the hat Vivi had been staring at into the wind. His eyes flashed red.

"AHH!" Vivi shouted. He held his palms up and blasted the Waltz in the face with a massive blast of fire. That sent its airship careening back, but he got under control before they entered South Gate, and was back after them. Jason could barely keep his balance through the ruckus, and Steiner wasn't doing much better. Zidane rushed onto the deck.

"Vivi, get away from the edge!" he shouted. The Waltz buzzed past them again, and blew Vivi right off the ship, but Zidane had a fast hold on him, anchoring himself down by wrapping his tail around the railing. They were now inside of South Gate, and the Waltz was preparing another blast of lightning. But the lightning strayed past its ship's engine, causing him to loose control. Before he could stabilize himself, he smashed into a wall, causing a massive explosion. The cargo ship made it out just in time, and Zidane pulled Vivi back on board. Everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"We made it!" Dagger shouted with amazement. She had done the flying back there! 

"You make an excellent pilot, Princess," Steiner commented. Then he looked back at the Gate.

"Good heavens! We've destroyed South Gate!" he exclaimed. Zidane, Vivi and Jason filed into the cabin.

"Don't sweat it, Steiner, no one's gonna know it was us," Zidane said.

"Worthless mendicant! Need I remind you that I know you are responsible for this! When we return to Alexandria, you shall be hanged!" he shouted, hopping up in down in his agitated way.

"What makes you think that I'm just gonna go back?" Zidane challenged.

"Boys, calm down," Dagger interjected. "Steiner, there are more important things to worry about than executing Zidane," she explained. "After all, he never did anything really wrong. I did ask him to kidnap me, after all, and every further piece of action was wholly responsible on his part," she said. Steiner flustered with anger.

"Princess... very well. If that is how you feel, I shall no longer concern myself with the arrest of this thief," he said in a respectful tone.

"Thank you."

With the talking dying down, they could start to hear sniffling from Vivi. Steiner turned to him.

"Master Vivi, what is the matter?" he asked.

"I don't know... it said that they were just mindless dolls. Am I a doll too?" Vivi wondered.

"I don't see what the problem is, Master Vivi," Steiner stated.

"Yeah, Rusty's right!" Zidane said encouragingly. "They're nothing like you. You're an individual, always remember that. What you do is for you, okay? Never think that you're like them."

Vivi put on a weak smile and nodded.

"Okay."

Jason leaned against the cabin wall, looking from person to person. This was really a nice group. Yet somehow, he felt like he didn't yet fit in. Well, of course he didn't. He never fit in anywhere. Jason couldn't help but wonder what Meg was up to, and realized that it could be his preoccupation with those other things, like getting back home, that kept him on the outside. No matter how much he might try to talk himself out of it, he seemed unable to get his mind off of these things that were now unimportant. After all, he knew these people would be involved in a world-threatening situation; why else would they be the stars of a game? So what was important was helping them. He'd figure out how to get home after that.

"Jason?" Zidane asked, waving a hand in front of his face. Jason seemed to have zoned out while thinking about his situation.

"Oh... what?" Jason responded.

"You were staring into blank space, Jason. What's on your mind?" he wondered, leaning next to him on the wall. "Not still thinking about alternate universes and past lives and all those other weird things, I hope?"

Jason chuckled, trying to put that in the past. "I'm past that. I was just thinking about what I'm going to do when I get to Lindblum," Jason said airily. That brought about a degree of silence. It was true that Lindblum would probably be the parting of ways for everyone. 

"Hey, I'm sure you'll figure out something. Lindblum is huge! There's gotta be something there for you. If you're lucky, you might even find someone there for you," Zidane said, nudging him in the shoulder. That got a chuckle out of everyone, even Steiner, who was starting to soften up. Things were looking good for the quintet. 

On the other hand, things were not looking so good in Dali. As Mega awaited the next cargo ship so that she could head out to Treno, a dark force approached the town. He was preparing to upgrade the production facility here, to make more powerful Black Mages. He and Mega would both be in for quite a surprise when they would meet each other. 

Phew...chapter 7 done. I'm sure you know how 'he' is. Am I still doing good? Oh, and if any of you have suggestions or requests for what might happen in the future, feel free to tell me. I love reader input.


	8. A Deal with the Devil

Chapter Eight:

I should be writing this a lot faster now. Should. By the way, I know my take on the lines from the game are a little off...but if you think about chaos theory it kind of makes sense. ; Anyway, here we go.

"Can you show us some proof of your royal heritage?" the Elite guard asked Dagger. She produced her pendant.

"That jewel looks remarkably similar to the Falcon's Claw! Please wait here!" the Elite guard said, dashing off to get the Minister. Steiner looked threateningly at Zidane.

"This is all your fault! They wouldn't be doubting the Princess if she didn't have to keep company with a thief like you!" he accused. Zidane took it in stride.

"Chill, Rusty. We'll be fine."

Of course, Zidane's relaxed attitude just made Steiner even angrier, but Dagger quickly calmed him down with some wise words. Jason and Vivi just couldn't get over how huge this place was.

"It's even bigger than Alexandria Castle!" Vivi commented.

"Amazing," Jason said. He had been thinking about the concept of an airship recently, and he found that it was rather impossible. There simply wasn't enough surface area on the lift propellers to generate a hovering force. And yet he had seen many of them, so he knew it was possible, in this world anyway. This fact implied that the laws of physics were different here, Jason noted to himself. Before he could stray off onto the implications of this discovery, however, Minister Artania showed up.

"Princess Garnet! You've made it!" he exclaimed excitedly. The Princess did a bow before him.

"Hello, Minister Artania," she replied.

"Please come with me. The Regent has requested to see you," Artania ushered, heading to the lift. The group followed in silence, unable to think of anything worth saying, really. Even Jason was too distracted to tap into other people's thoughts. All the way up to the Regent's Chamber, he just followed along in a daze, unable to get his mind off of what the equation for lift was in this world. Any of the occasional thoughts that popped up concerning Meg he quickly squelched. He assured himself that it wasn't anything to worry about.

He may have been right, at least until this fateful afternoon in the Village of Dali. Megan was just minding her business, ensuring that production was going as it should, when he showed up. She never even noticed that he had approached; as he walked through the town, he received odd stares from everyone, but this was nothing new to him. He entered the underground facility nonchalantly and practically ran right into Meg, who was just turning a corner to go into the egg-making room. They both stopped before that happened, though, and took a few steps back. Meg was immediately frightened as she was unable to peer into the man's head, and the only way that was possible was if he possessed power far greater than hers. What he found odd was that this girl seemed to be wandering around idly down here.

"What is your name, girl?" the man asked. Meg decided it might be better not to get in a fight with this man, and so she played along.

"Megan," she replied. The man's lips curled into a patronizing smile.

"Well Megan, don't you think you should be home? I have work to do down here," he said. She was not deterred.

"That's okay, so do I," she said, smiling politely. The man's look changed to contempt.

"Really? And what might that be?" he wondered. Megan decided that it was better to be honest with this man; there was an air about him that suggested a certain quality, that he might have eyes for power and domination. She might be able to form an alliance with him, and later dispose of him when she no longer needed him.

"I need to make sure no one messes up with the Mages so that I can have a proper army when I go to Treno," she explained. The man was completely shaken.

"Excuse me?" Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that a girl would be disturbing the Black Mage army!

"You heard me. You seem like a man with a lust for power, and that makes us alike," she explained. "Right?" she wondered. The man was having problems deciding whether or not this girl was serious. But it didn't take long for him to decide that it didn't matter. 

"Perhaps. So what do you want, Megan?" he asked.

"I want to conquer Gaia," she stated with fierce determination. Well, that was only the first step, but it would do for the purpose of explanation. After that, she could return to Earth. Then, she thought, I will bring you back, brother. The man smiled in a way that was almost genuine, but Meg saw through it. He was going to try and take her in and exploit her, but it would happen the other way around.

"Well, Megan, perhaps we should sit down and have a chat," the man suggested. They didn't sit down, but they did chat. A deadly alliance was being formed, and the peaceful villagers above were completely unaware of the evil being plotted below their feet.

* * *

"OGLOP!" Steiner shouted, punching the disgusting thing right back into the chair from whence it came. 

"I demand that you remove that creature from the throne immediately and present the Regent!" Steiner complained, hoping up and down in his agitated frog way. 

"Please, Captain Steiner, settle down. What you see before you is none other then the Regent!" Minister Artania assured him. Jason took a quick look and saw that indeed, the Oglop was the Regent. 

"It has to be him; that mustache is unmistakable!" Dagger declared. Zidane looked on amused while Vivi just stood watching, silent. Jason kept glancing around, but still paid attention to the interaction. 

"Indeed, it is I, gwok, Regent Cid," the Oglop declared from his perch on the throne. "Of course, you must be wondering about my peculiar form. You see-"

"Allow me to explain," the Minister cut in. "Someone snuck in at night and attacked the Regent, then made off with his new airship," he explained. Zidane nodded knowledgeably.

"Whoever did it had to have been highly skilled, like me," he observed in usual manner of self-assertiveness. Steiner growled and shook his armored fist at him.

"For all we know it was you!" he shouted.

"Please!" Dagger said, agitated. "Uncle Cid, I came here because I'm worried about my Mother..."

"Ah, understandable. But surely it can wait until tomorrow. You must all be tired after your trip."

There were murmurs of agreement from the group.

"Come then, it is time for lunch," the Minister said. With that, the group filed out to the banquet hall. Zidane was quick to leave, however; he couldn't handle the food at the palace. Jason decided that he would probably feel the same way, and could really use some walking around time. So, he asked Zidane to show him around town. And of course, the first place Zidane took him was Bobo's bar. 

"Today's special is Soup du Silence. Not too bad if I do say so myself. Shall we?" Zidane asked. Jason nodded.

"One thing before we go in, Jason. No psychic stuff, okay? It might start a panic or something," Zidane told him. Jason agreed that it was probably a good idea, and with that, they entered. Bobo noticed them immediately and turned to greet them.

"Long time no see, Zidane. Who's your friend?" Bobo asked.

"This is Jason. He may seem strange, but you'll get to like him quick enough," Zidane jested. 

"Excuse me, you're standing in everyone's way," said a waitress named Lillian. They both moved aside to let her pass, then Zidane nudged Jason in the shoulder and whispered to him.

"Watch this, I'm gonna show you how to get a girl," he said. Jason took a seat at the edge of the bar and watched.

"Excuse me, but have you ever been on an airship?" Zidane asked Lillian. She turned to him and smiled.

"No, I haven't, why?" she wondered.

"Oh, you have to! Lindblum is really a great site from up in the air. How about I take you on an airship?" he proposed.

"Really? That sounds great!" she squealed. But before Zidane could respond, a woman at the counter expressed some distaste.

"Hey tail-boy, you're disturbing the other customers," she sneered from under a rubber hat. Zidane took an aggressive stance against her.

"Hey, you've got a tail too, rat face!" he shouted. She stood up and looked to him.

"That's it. I'm gonna pound you," she said.

"Take it outside, Zidane," Bobo urged. Jason was enthralled; Lillian seemed to have lost all interest in Zidane, but in the back of his mind Zidane was still thinking about her. At the same time, he was facing down this woman.

"Do you even remember my name?" she asked. Zidane thought for a moment.

"Betty?" 

"No."

"Helga?"

"No!"

Zidane was losing confidence. "Oh, I remember. You used to live near by me. Man, you sure have gotten big, Christine!"

"Wrong again, idiot!" she declared.

"Hey, come on, I never forget a pretty face. How's it going, Freya?" he wondered. He took a seat between her and Jason, and she too sat down.

"I've been training to participate in the Festival of the Hunt. But it would seem that you've been up to some things as well; who is the person with you?" she wondered, casting a glance at Jason, who was starting to feel agitation at everyone asking Zidane for the introductions.

"Jason, this is Freya. Freya, this is Jason. We picked him up on our way back from Alexandria, and I'm just showing him around town," he explained.

"I see," Freya said. Jason already felt more comfortable around her; he had now had enough time to peer into her mind a little, and understood that she was a warrior. In essence, the only thing she lived for was improving her skills in combat, or at least that was what it seemed. He was comfortable with this because, at least back on Earth, improving his mind was basically the only thing he lived for. While it wasn't a combat skill there, now that he was on Gaia it seemed to have that same purpose. So in a way, the two of them were quite similar.

"Nice to meet you," Jason offered. Freya gave him a curt nod.

"So, Freya, ever find your boyfriend?" Zidane wondered.

"Alas, no. I have found no trace of him," she lamented. Now Jason had a better understanding. After losing her life's love, she had nothing else but this fighting lifestyle. 

"Bummer."

"Will you be participating in the festival?" she asked Zidane. Both he and Jason responded simultaneously.

"Naw," Zidane said.

"Yes," Jason said. Freya cast a curious glance at Jason.

"I do not mean to be rude, Jason, but how do you stand a chance? You seem to barely have enough muscle to walk, let alone battle monsters," she commented. Jason smiled and tapped his forehead. He remembered that Zidane didn't want him talking about this though, so instead of telling her out loud, he spoke to her telepathically.

"I'm a powerful psychic. My mind is a very deadly thing," he said. She sat there with a confused expression, and Zidane looked at Jason with slow realization.

"Jason... you're a strange one," he said with a chuckle. 

"Jason?" Freya asked.

"Yes?" he responded out loud.

"I see... well, good luck to you in the Hunt, Jason. It would seem you stand a fair chance," she said.

"Thank you," he said with a smile.

That, for the most part, was their conversation for the day. Zidane showed Jason more of the town before suggesting that they grab a room at the hotel and turn in for the night. Jason was rather tired, actually, because his body was not used to so much walking around all at once. He would have to see if he could develop enough telekinesis to float, because his legs probably wouldn't be able to take the continent crossing he was sure to encounter later on. So he and Zidane found a room at the hotel, but they stayed up a while longer. Zidane had things on his mind.

"So, what do you think of Lindblum?" he wondered. They both were sitting on their beds, and Jason gave a sigh.

"It's even bigger than I imagine it would be. I feel like it may be impossible for me to find what I'm looking for here," he said. Zidane smirked.

"Hey now, that isn't true. You can find girls everywhere in Lindblum!" he encouraged. Jason laughed a little.

"Unlike you, Zidane, I don't always have girls on my mind. While it's probably true that I could use some female companionship, what I'm really looking for is some way to get home...but since I know that's impossible anyway, I guess what I'd want to find is some place where I could put my mind to use," Jason explained.

"You should see if you can talk with the Regent. I bet he's got all sorts of inventions that he could use a good mind for. Anyway... I was wondering, Jason. What is your home like? I've been kind of afraid to ask, but I figure that there's no better time than now," Zidane said. Jason closed his eyes and leaned back onto his bed.

"Well... it's very, very different from Alexandria, Lindblum and Dali," he began.

"So maybe it's more like Treno?" Zidane ventured. Jason thought for a moment, borrowing some imagery from Zidane's mind.

"Not really. First of all, there are no castles anywhere on my continent. At least, none that I know of. If there are any, no one rules from them," Jason said.

"Well, where do the King and Queen rule from, then?" Zidane wondered.

"We don't have any monarchy," Jason said.

"Geez! Well, that's enough to freak me out. I don't dare ask where your home is, because I know you're going to tell me something even more unbelievable than your description of it was," Zidane responded. Jason chuckled softly.

"Probably. I wouldn't worry about it," Jason said. Zidane nodded, lying down on his bed.

"Good idea. You know, you're a good kid, Jason, even if you are a little messed up," he joked. Jason turned his head to him and frowned.

"Kid? You're only two years older than I am," Jason insisted.

"Whatever. Well... I guess that only leaves one question. What kind of girl are you looking for?" he wondered.

"Why would you want to know that?" Jason responded. He didn't look into Zidane's head for the answer. It didn't even occur to him to do so; lengthy conversations were not something he often participated in. Besides which, it was more socially acceptable.

"Because you really need one, you know? I'll have a guilty conscience if I don't set you up with at least a potential girlfriend," he explained. Jason smirked, and looked up at the ceiling.

"I don't know... she should be pretty, of course, but that's not the most important thing. She should be smart...definitely. I don't really know anything else; I've never thought about having a girlfriend before. I never really figured I needed one," he explained.

"Trust me Jason, your body thinks differently," Zidane said. Jason remembered when he had kissed Megan. It had been rather nice... but he didn't need something like that distracting him.

"Can we figure it out tomorrow? I'm pretty tired," Jason said.

"Sure. Sweet dreams, Jason," Zidane said, crawling under the blanket. Jason did the same, not bothering to respond. Slowly, he slipped into an empty slumber, devoid of dreams. He never had dreams. 

Many other things had happened that day, but the most notable of them was in Dali. The facility was now producing even more powerful black mages, and Megan had officially formed an alliance with the strange man. He hadn't told her much of his strategy, but enough that he and Megan could work effectively together. He had learned quite a great deal about her, and the reverse was also true. She was a powerful psychic, and could easily influence a normal person to do her will. She had a few other abilities as well, but she was keeping them secret for now. Megan had learned that the man possessed very powerful magic, and could probably blow her to pieces without much effort. She also learned that he was the perpetrator of the black mage production, and rode on a Silver Dragon. And of course, she learned his name.

Kuja. She liked the sound of it; it seemed to sing in her ear. It sounded almost otherworldly, even for this strange planet of Gaia. It was a name that commanded respect, and she was willing to give that to him, for now. But soon, when his guard was down, she would eliminate him. It would not do to have someone breathing down her shoulder when the time came for her to return to Earth. Unless she could get him under her control... but she wouldn't count on it. With him on her side, no matter how much they might not trust each other, it would make conquering this planet much easier. Once that was done, she would have no further need for him. 

Hmm... interesting, isn't it? What are Kuja's revised plans now that he and Megan are allied? Will Jason ever get a girl? How will he do in the Festival of the Hunt? So many questions... that's what we have the next chapters for! Bye.


	9. Reiko's Art

Chapter 9:

Yes. Let's continue. 

Zidane was lying awake on his bed, while Jason still seemed to be asleep, when there came a knock on the door.

"Can I come in?" a soft voice asked. Zidane recognized it as Vivi right away.

"Sure," he said, getting to his feet and opening the door. "What's up?" Zidane wondered.

"Well, I wanted to get a look around Lindblum. It always seems so busy... I wonder where people go when they want to be alone?" Vivi wondered.

"Well, I was gonna go check out the hideout in the Theater District. You wanna come with?" Zidane asked.

"N-no thanks, I'll just look around town," Vivi responded.

"Okay, I'll show you around!" Zidane encouraged.

"That's okay. I wanna go alone," Vivi said. Zidane nodded.

"Okay. Well, I'll see you later, Vivi."

"Bye, Zidane," Vivi said, walking out of the room. Zidane looked to Jason. 

"Still asleep, huh? I can fix that."

Zidane bent over Jason and put his mouth to his ear.

"HEY JASON! WAKE UP!" he shouted. Jason bolted upright, or at least tried to, because Zidane's head was in the way. Jason fell back to the pillow, rubbing his head, while Zidane stood in pain.

"Ow..." Jason said.

"Heh. I guess I deserved that," Zidane said. "Come on, I'm gonna show you the hideout today."

Jason got out of bed, sleep instantly gone from him.

"You mean the Tantalus hideout?" Jason asked.

"Yeah. Let's go," Zidane replied. Jason nodded and followed as they walked into the hall. They heard a sound like kupo coming from an open doorway, though, so they decided to investigate. They entered, and indeed a moogle was standing placidly in a corner. Something then occurred to Jason: shouldn't these moogles be offering to save their progress? Not very likely, since thus far the game was not very much like the game, but Jason figured he'd see what could be done. If saving was possible, it would be an invaluable asset. In effect, it would make them invincible.

"Excuse me, but can you write us down in your diary?" Jason asked. Both Zidane and the moogle cast curious glances at him.

"Kupo! Does it look like I have a diary, kupo?" the moogle wondered, agitated. Jason blinked and realized that it was a rather ridiculous assumption.

"Sorry... don't know what I was thinking," he apologized.

"Sheesh, Jason, just when I think you're getting sensible, you go and act crazy again!" Zidane said with a laugh. The two headed out of the hotel, across the street and into the cab station. Zidane and Jason were reaching a point of mutual understanding; Zidane no longer had to ask what Jason was trying to do, and Jason no longer felt that he had to explain himself. It was just an accepted fact: Jason was not quite right in the head, so occasional oddities would have to be expected. Zidane, being the lighthearted guy he was, didn't let this fact keep them from being friends, however. Zidane was telling him about one of his thieving endeavors when they reached the hideout. While Jason could've gotten the entire story right from Zidane's head, he discovered it was rather impolite, and furthermore, and the story was more enjoyable when listened to out loud.

"Well, here it is," Zidane said.

"Doesn't look like much," Jason commented as they stepped inside.

"Yeah. It looks like no one's been here for a while... I sure hope the others made it out of Evil Forest okay," Zidane said. Jason nodded.

"I think they did. Don't worry about it," Jason assured. 

"You're probably right," Zidane agreed. They heard bells ringing in the distance.

"Sounds like a performance just ended," Zidane said. "Is it really that late already?" he asked no one in particular. Two children rushed in, almost on cue.

"Hey, it's Zidane!" the boy said.

"Yay!" the girl shouted with glee. Zidane walked up to them.

"Hey you guys, how's it going?" he wondered.

"Great! We're members of Tantalus now, too," the boy said.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah! Uncle Baku said that if we found a treasure, we'd be in!" the girl said. The boy took out something from his pocket and handed it to Zidane.

"See?"

"Wow, trick sparrow's wings. That's some treasure."

"Yay!" both of the children shouted. Jason smiled. He hadn't seen such cute kids since... well, ever. 

"Say, did you bring the princess back?" the boy wondered.

"Yeah, I did," Zidane replied.

"Where is she?" the girl asked.

"She's at the castle right now," Zidane said.

"I bet she misses you. You should go see her!" the boy encouraged him.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah!" 

"Hey, who's that?" the girl asked, pointing to Jason. 

"Well, that's my new friend Jason," Zidane explained.

"He looks kinda funny. Did you find him at the castle?" the boy wondered. Jason chuckled a little.

"Something like that. Well, I'm gonna go see the Princess now," Zidane said.

"Okay! Bye, Zidane!" the boy said.

"Bye Zidane!" the girl echoed. The two rushed out with the energy of youth, leaving the other two in a cloud of dust.

"Well, I guess we're going to the castle. You wanna come with?" Zidane asked.

"Actually, I think I'll look around here some more," Jason responded. "I'm sure you can catch the heart of the lovely Dagger without my help," he said. Zidane laughed.

"Heh. You read me like a book," Zidane said.

"I'm psychic," Jason reminded him.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Zidane said, scratching the back of his head. "Anyway, I'll meet you back at the hotel, okay? I'll sign you up for the Festival while I'm over there. It starts tomorrow, so be sure to get lots of sleep tonight," Zidane said.

"Thanks, Zidane. Have a good time with Dagger."

"You know I'll try."

At this point in the conversation, they had returned to the street.

"I'll see you later, Zidane."

"Later, Jason."

And with that, they parted ways. Jason headed down the stairway he found in front of him, which took him to a square that appeared to be outside the backstage entrance to a theater. Jason would expect such a place to be busy with people, but instead there was only one person there. She was a girl, whom Jason judged to be about his age, who was wearing long, almost baggy red pants, and a black shirt that could barely be seen, as over it she wore a red, robe-like garment that cut off at mid-thigh. It crossed over her front, and was held in place by a black, cotton belt. Moreover, she was practicing what seemed to be some form of dance. Jason thought for a split second and realized that this girl was obviously an expert in some martial art, but he wouldn't even have guessed that such practice existed on Gaia. He had been slow to realize the nature of her movements because they didn't appear to serve any practical purpose, and because he had never really seen any sort of martial artist perform. Nevertheless, he found the presence of this blonde-haired girl to be almost mystifying. Before he could even announce himself, she turned to him and smiled.

"Hi."

* * *

Kuja had proven to be an invaluable resource to Megan. His influence gave her a close position to Queen Brahne, so she could soon be able to eliminate her as a figurehead, and once she got Kuja out of the picture, she would be in full control of the Black Mages. But there was much preparation she would have to do before that. First of all, she would have to figure out how to use the psychic attack that Jason had so cleverly discovered, because Kuja was quite obviously immune to usual psychic techniques like mind-reading and mind-control. But for now, she needed to keep up the illusion that she was loyal to Brahne. She knew that Kuja's plan hinged on the Queen's belief of their loyalty, though she had not yet been told exactly why. What was really important was for her to keep up the illusion that she was loyal to Kuja and his plan, because he was the one that could easily eliminate her.

That was easy enough to do, though, because that called for next to nothing right now. They were going to mobilize the Black Mage army right outside of Gizamaluke Grotto, but the mages were well enough controlled right now that her assistance was not needed. Rather, Kuja had her keeping a constant psychic watch over Brahne, so that he could be certain all was going as he planned it. Consequentially, this kept Megan close to the battlefield, and so Kuja had another job for her. She was to use her abilities to scan the area and find out where their targets were, like the King of Burmecia. 

As part of this new, high-ranking position in the Alexandrian military, Megan also received new clothes. Flare was something that was appreciated in the specialty officers of the military, and so after Megan's abilities were brought to light, she had an outfit specially designed and fitted to her. It consisted of a form-fitting black bodysuit, with gold fabric hanging down from a loop that went around her shoulders, suspended by her telekinesis. The fabric was cut so that it fell like streamers down her height, so people could see the black suit beneath.

In addition, she had a delta-shaped piece of gold suspended over her forehead, again by her abilities, so that the tip of it rested in space an inch out and an inch above the space between her eyes. The two shafts of the hollow triangle shape went back to a space in the air over her cheekbones and a good two inches over the top of her head. Overall, it was a very menacing look. She was a prize to the Alexandrian military, thought Queen Brahne. If she were less arrogant, and thus less ignorant, she may have realized how deadly of a mistake she was making.

* * *

"YOU! Where is the Princess?" Steiner demanded, shaking his fist at Zidane accusingly. Zidane remained nonchalant.

"Relax! I just got here, I didn't even know she was missing," he explained. Steiner thought for a moment, then shouted.

"What am I doing here? I should be out looking for her! Out of my way!" he demanded as he plowed down the staircase.

"Geez, what's with him?" Zidane wondered, walking after him and heading back to the fountain room. There he heard Garnet's beautiful voice singing the strange song he remembered from Dali.

"It's coming from upstairs... I've got to get up there!" he resolved.

It was easy enough for him to trick the sleepy guard into giving up his armor. From that point on, it was an easy ride up to see the Princess. As he approached her, a group of birds flew away, and she looked to him with a depressed face, with a somewhat false smile on it.

"How did you get up here? This is a restricted area," she noted.

"Hey, I do this for a living, remember?" Zidane reminded her.

"Oh yes. It was probably easy for you," she said.

Their discussion continued up to the telescope, and to Zidane's mistake reference of an airship ride. But with his impressive charisma, he convinced the Princess that should he win in the Festival of the Hunt tomorrow, she would allow him to take her on a date. Zidane felt on top of the world. Jason, on the other hand, was just plain confused.

"Um... hello," Jason said in response to the girl's greeting. 

"You don't look like you're from here," she noticed, walking up to him casually.

"Really? What makes you say that?" he wondered. It didn't seem to him like he looked different from anyone else here.

"Well, you seem to not know where you were going. Like you were just wandering. No one in Lindblum wanders, as far as I know. We just go to where we want to go. But you didn't know I was going to be here, and yet you came, stopped and watched. So I figure that you must not have a destination in mind, and thus are not from around here. At least, that's most likely, considering you look like you're as old as I am," she explained. Jason thought about it for a moment, and in a way it did make sense. This girl seemed very bright to notice it, though.

"Tell me, is your father a scholar?" Jason asked. The girl smirked.

"Don't you think we should introduce ourselves first?" she wondered. Of course, Jason thought to himself.

"How silly of me. My name is Jason," he said, offering a hand.

"I'm Reiko. Nice to meet you, Jason," she responded, shaking his hand well. Now that they were closer, Jason got a better look at Reiko; she didn't have much on her chest, but her legs seemed to stretch on for... quite a ways. 

"Well, Reiko, I was wondering if your father is a scholar, because you seem to be a well-educated girl," Jason explained. Reiko sighed.

"Yes, he is. He thinks I'm wasting my time practicing, and that I should be studying instead," she said resentfully, looking towards the ground.

"Practicing what?" Jason asked stupidly. It was as if his psychic abilities had been turned off; like there was a switch in his brain, and when Reiko came close it got flipped, and all of the psychic 'lights' went out.

"We don't really have a name for it... we just call it our Art," she said.

"Who's we?" Jason wondered.

"My mother, her mother, her mother's mother, back that way a few more generations and me. It's been passed down from mother to daughter for a long time," Reiko explained.

"That's amazing. So your mother has trained you in it, and your father wants you instead to pursue studies?" Jason asked.

"That's the gist of it. Unfortunately, I'm not going to have a choice much longer. My dad is going to make me...it wouldn't be right for me to hurt him to have my way, but he's going to lock me up in my room with studies," Reiko moaned. "I'm starting to think he might be right."

"Can't your mother help?" Jason wondered.

"She's dead, Jason," Reiko said. Jason wondered why he hadn't noticed that. Such a fact should be obvious to a skilled psyker like him, but he simply seemed unable to focus on his abilities. 

"I'm sorry, Reiko. Anyway, about this situation with your dad. Always remember that just because you have the ability to learn great things doesn't mean you have to do so. If this Art of yours is what you want to spend your time doing, then I would suggest finding a way to do it. Run away from home if you have to, but don't let your father rule you."

Jason couldn't believe what he was saying. Why should he care if her dad was bossing this girl around or not? What was going on? Could it be that already he actually cared for her? Maybe his psychic sense was still working on a subconscious level, and he sensed some great potential in her.

"Do you really think that's what I should do?" Reiko wondered.

"You need to follow your heart," Jason said. What was this? He had never followed his heart before; he had always followed his mind. But then again, he was very different. At any rate, he seemed to be saying what Reiko wanted to hear.

"Thank you, Jason," she said. 

"So," Jason asked, "are you going to be in the Festival tomorrow? You seem like you'd do pretty well," he said. She blushed a little.  
"Thank you. Actually, I think my dad decided to let me have tomorrow to myself, since it's so important to my technique. He should be signing me up today," Reiko said.

"That's great!" Jason said. "That means we'll be competing together."

Reiko couldn't help but laugh. "Are you serious? I don't mean to be rude or anything, Jason, but look at you!" 

Jason held up a hand before she could go on. He had heard this speech before.

"Listen. I don't intend to fight with my body," he began. "I am going to use my mind," Jason explained.

"I hope you don't think you're going to beat savage monsters by strategy," Reiko commented. Jason shook his head.

"Nothing like that. Don't worry, you'll see tomorrow," he assured her. She smiled.

"Okay. I'm looking forward to this. Just don't get yourself hurt, okay?"

"Of course."

"Well, I should be heading home now. I need to start making dinner," Reiko said. 

"Alright. See you tomorrow then," Jason confirmed. 

"Right," she answered. Then she leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Just in case we don't meet again. You're a good-looking guy, Jason. Bye!"

And with that, she walked off to a small road that likely led to her house. Jason stood there, confused more now than ever. He had just been kissed. Why? Because he was good looking and Reiko thought she might not see him again? Jason wasn't sure if that was a good reason or not, but he had been kissed. With that conclusion safely tucked away, Jason headed back to the hotel. He figured that it would take Zidane a while longer to get back, since the castle took longer to get to, so he passed the time by practicing his telekinesis. It was not one of his strong points; he was barely able to lift himself a centimeter off the floor, let alone keep himself balanced and moving. By the time Zidane came back, Jason had tired himself out.

"So, how'd the exploring go?" Zidane wondered. 

"I got kissed," Jason answered.

Well, that's that chapter... see you next time.


	10. The Festival Begins!

Chapter 10

"No way!" Zidane shouted. Jason smirked.

"Yes way!" Jason responded, feeling giddy and light-headed as a combination of exhaustion and sudden elation. 

"How'd you pull it off?" Zidane asked, practically leaping with excitement.

"I don't know...there was this girl, Reiko, and we started talking, and before she left to go make dinner, she kissed me on the cheek," Jason explained. Zidane sat down on his bed and laughed.

"Wow. You're smoother than I thought, Jason. Did you use some sort of spell on her or something?" he joked. Jason shook his head.

"I couldn't have, even if I'd tried. It was like she turned off my psychic abilities somehow. No girl has ever been able to do that before. It's kind of got me worried," Jason mentioned. Zidane wore a thoughtful look.

"I can understand why, but I wouldn't let it bug you. It's easy to lose yourself when a pretty girl talks with you," Zidane said. Jason nodded.

"And she was pretty. Legs that looked like they could kill a Mu with a single kick," Jason remembered.

"Wohohohoh! Jason scored a hottie!" Zidane exclaimed. Jason smirked.

"I guess I did. Hey, that reminds me, for some reason or another. Why are you back so early? Shouldn't you be taking Dagger for a night on the town or something?" Jason remembered.

"Ha! Like Rusty would ever even let me take her out of the castle unescorted, much less to some restaurant in town. And anyway, I kind of slipped up, so she's a little upset with me. I did manage to convince her to go on a date with me if I won the Festival of the Hunt tomorrow, though. So I signed both of us up and decided to come back here early for some rest," Zidane explained.

"Sounds good to me," Jason agreed. The two of them grabbed a quick bite to eat from Bobo's and then went to bed. Tomorrow would hold many tiring events.

* * *

Just as the sun was rising on the next day, the black mage army had been assembled outside of Gizamaluke Grotto. Even the famed General Beatrix had come to accompany this skirmish. She, Kuja and Megan were given guard duty to the Queen, who in her mercy had spared Zorn and Thorn, despite their failure with the Black Waltzes. Zorn and Thorn were leading the charge with the mages, but they didn't have to worry; the Burmecian soldiers were barely strong enough to hurt the twin Jesters, much less defeat them, especially with the mages swarming around everywhere. 

Megan had noticed a single Burmecian soldier make it out of the Grotto alive, but she didn't think twice about it. He was wounded and could not possibly make it far enough to warn Lindblum with all of the Mist monsters roving about. Besides, she had other matters to tend to. For instance, she needed to find Kuja and have a talk with him. She had mentally overheard something very interesting in Brahne's mind, and as his assistant needed to inform him of it. It figured, she thought, that when she finally had something to say to him, he would be off somewhere. Probably gone off to start terrorizing Burmecia on his own, she guessed. He seemed to enjoy that sort of thing.

* * *

"Sorry I'm late," Zidane said as he entered the guestroom of the castle with Jason. "What's up?"

Of course they both had a good reason for being late. When they had left, Jason decided he could stand a trip to the weapons store, since he was for the most part unarmored. While there, Jason noticed a strange looking, silver headpiece in the back, and it had taken a while to convince Dragoos, the owner, to let him buy it. It seemed to be worth it, though, because Jason noticed his psychic senses seemed to be keener after he put it on. Then of course there were the beasts that had been released ahead of schedule. That certainly didn't speed up their trip - the town seemed in a state of sheer pandemonium.

"Good," said the man in charge. "The hunters Freya, Zidane, Jason and Vivi are all here," he declared. Vivi jumped back, shocked, and gripped his hat in frustration.

"What do you mean? I never signed up!" Vivi shouted. He had just been there to cheer the others on.

"Oh, I thought you'd do good, so I signed you up, Vivi," Zidane said. Vivi looked at him angrily.

"What?!"

"That was very inconsiderate, Zidane," Steiner said.

"Come on, Vivi, with your black magic, it should be a synch," Zidane said encouragingly. He knelt down next to him and whispered something in his ear.

"Me and the Princess?" Vivi shouted. Zidane shushed him under his breath.

"What about the Princess? What evil are you plotting now, Zidane?" Steiner accused.

"Nothing, right Vivi?"

"R-right."

Jason was highly entertained by this interaction, but at the same time, he couldn't help but wonder about Reiko. She was supposed to be participating, so where was she? Probably starting from some other place. Still, the beasts had been released early, and she could've been caught off guard or something. Worrying, he decided, would not change anything, so he focused himself on the task ahead.

"You will all start from different districts. Hunter Freya will start in the Industrial District, Hunter Vivi will start from the Business District, Hunter Zidane will start from the Theater District, and Hunter Jason will start from the Residential District. What do each of you want as a prize?"

Jason became confused at this point, because the air cabs had never offered the Residential District before. And didn't people live with their businesses? It had to be rich folk, Jason gathered. 

"I'll have an add-on," Freya said.

"I'll go with gil, all the way," Zidane said.

"I'll take a card, please," Vivi said. Jason wasn't sure.

"Um..." His mind raced. What might Reiko want? What?! That wasn't like him. Snap out of it, he told himself.

"A ruby," he said, without really knowing why. Probably because it would make his headpiece more powerful.

"Alright, so that's an add-on, gil... a card.... And a ruby. Hunters, to your starting points! You will have twelve minutes once you get there. Good luck!"

The four of them headed out, each boarding the appropriate air cab. Steiner and Garnet got on the last air cab, which took them to the observing platform. They cheered for Vivi, since he was the only one that both of them knew and really liked. It didn't matter to any of them, though, because they were completely absorbed with the battles.

Just as Jason departed from the air cab, he thought he saw a flash of brown go past the doorway that led out into the street. He rushed out and turned, and indeed a Fang was rushing after some helpless person. Jason concentrated on the Fang and used his psychic attack. The thing fell over dead without so much as a whimper. Jason was amazed; this new headpiece was amazing! Then again, he had probably gotten a lot stronger since when he first fought with Fangs, so his attack was not that much stronger. It only seemed that way.

The person turned around and thanked Jason with a yelp before rushing indoors. With that, Jason headed off in search of more creatures to defeat.

Freya was hopping from rooftop to rooftop, striking down any beast she saw on her way. It was almost too easy for her.

Vivi started off afraid, but when he saw how effective his magic was against the monsters, he gained confidence and became a deadly competitor.

Zidane was doing well; the only thing holding him back was that the beasts seemed to be very well dispersed. But when he did find them, they didn't last long.

And Reiko had found her way to the same district that Jason was in. She had started quite a distance away, but she moved quickly as there was almost nothing to defeat where she was. And they almost ran into each other as Reiko turned a corner, but Jason had stopped to use his attack on a trick sparrow that was flying at him. When Reiko appeared in his line of sight, he almost flinched, but instead just shouted.

"Duck!"

She raised an eyebrow but did so, and the trick sparrow flew right through where her head at been, then fell down dead. Jason took a heavy sigh.

"If you hadn't ducked, I might have killed you right there. I don't know if line of sight affects my attack," he said. Reiko looked down at the dead bird, then back to Jason.

"You did that? How? I didn't even see you move!" Reiko demanded. Jason smiled.

"My mind, remember? Call it a psychic attack," he said. Reiko tilted her head to the side. 

"Psychic... attack?" she said, trying to make sense of it.

"Yeah. Basically, it... well, let me demonstrate," Jason said, seeing a Mu scuttling off somewhere. He focused on it and his eyes dilated some and suddenly the Mu fell over, dead. Reiko could barely believe what she was seeing.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" she shouted. "How did you..."

"I was born with it," Jason explained. She stared at him, dumbstruck.

"I never knew that such power existed in the mind," Reiko said, staring into the distance.

"Well, I would've explained it to you earlier, but I couldn't focus. I think this headpiece here helped," he said, indicating the piece of silver on his forehead. "It helps me concentrate."

"Wow. Well... I guess the hunt goes on! I'll see you at the finish, Jason!" Reiko shouted, starting to head off.

"Wait," Jason said. Reiko turned and approached him.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Here's one for good luck," he said, leaning in and placing a quick kiss on her lips. Then he turned and dashed off. "Good luck!"

Reiko stood there stunned. What a mysterious boy this was...she would like very much to see him again. But right now she had beasts to fight. She turned and headed down the street, spotting a Fang that seemed to be asking for a beating.

As Jason ran around the corner Reiko had come around, he had to wonder what he had been doing back there. He shouldn't have even stopped to talk, much less kiss her! It seemed Zidane had been right; the body's wills were very difficult to overcome. But he could worry about that later. There was a Festival to be won.

* * *

The Burmecian soldier retracted his sword from a creature that looked like a pumpkin and a hedgehog combined in some overall very unattractive form. He was bleeding and his vision was blurred with sweat and weariness, but he pressed on. He needed to ask Lindblum for help. The fate of both countries could very well depend on it! He had just finished climbing the unbearably tall mountain, since the Dragon's Gate had been shut tight. Something resembling steps had been carved into the stone, so the climb had not been much different than a long climb up a ladder. A very, very tall ladder.

The soldier wiped the sweat from his brow.

"I must endure! For the King's sake," he said to himself. He pressed onward to the castle gates.

* * *

"Hey pig! Turn this way!" Zidane shouted. The Zaghnol turned to him and roared.

"Damn, you're ugly!" Zidane said. From out of nowhere, Freya appeared.

"Allow me to assist," she offered.

"Fine, but I get the final blow. I've got a date with Dagger on the line!" Zidane said.

"...As you wish," Freya said. Before blows were flung, Zidane noticed something shiny in the creature's salivated maw.

"I'm gonna regret this!" he said to himself as he rushed up and pulled out a pair of Mythril gloves. Before he could return to a safe distance, though, the Zaghnol heaved its mighty tusks and sent Zidane skidding away.

"Damn... that hurt," he said. Freya skillfully plunged her javelin into the giant pig, and it let out an agitated roar. It followed up by blasting Zidane with a bolt of thunder. Freya looked at him in disdain.

"You fool, Zidane. You should know better then to attack a beast like this when not in full health," she thought to herself. Zidane wasn't moving much. By the rules, that meant he had retired. While Freya dealt with the beast, Reiko was having a dangerous encounter of her own. 

The first thing Reiko had noticed about this district was that it was huge in comparison to the other districts - she had spent ten minutes in it, never running out of things to kill. But now, with two minutes left, there was a problem: a group of angry Fangs had cornered her. There were five of them, and she was getting low on energy.

"Damn... these things are gonna rip me apart," she thought. "Well, at least I can go down fighting!"

The first Fang leapt at her, but she stepped to the side and sent a punch into its head. It fell to the ground, and the other four decided to rush at her. She picked one, ran at it, and used its head as a springboard to jump past them. Two Fangs ran into each other, but that just got them angry. The leader was back up, and another one had already circled around her. Now they were going to come from all sides.

"Won't my dad be upset," she thought. The circle tightened and the Fangs growled at her. But just when she thought all was lost, the Fangs turned their attention away from her. She followed their gaze and saw that Jason was coming! She smiled wondrously; though she detested being helped by anyone, this was a special circumstance, and a special person. But something was wrong. Apparently Jason's attack had a cool down time, because he was only able to shoot one of them down before the other four leapt on him.

"JASON!" Reiko shouted. She ran to him, hoping he could concentrate enough to get some of them off. She felt a huge surge of fear and anger that these Fangs would take away her good friend, the first boy she had ever kissed and ever wanted to kiss. In her heart she was sure of it. The emotions swirled, and suddenly, she was glowing a bright purple. She didn't have to ask herself what it was, even though she wasn't sure. The words, as they tended to in Trances, came to her.

"Burning Rave!" she shouted. She found her hands cupped in front of her, and a fire seemed to be growing in between her palms. A ball of fire shot from this blaze and seemed to enter a Fang, freezing it. Another three fireballs shot out and froze the others. With that, the fangs caught ablaze, and fell off of Jason, all dead. Reiko was exhausted, and the purple energy left her. She fell to her knees, breathing heavily. Jason got up slowly, bite marks all along his arms and legs. He hobbled over to her weakly.

"Reiko... you saved me back there," Jason said. She smiled weakly at him.

"Only after you saved me," Reiko reminded him.

"So then, I guess we saved each other," Jason said. Reiko grinned.

"I guess we did."

Then she noticed his wounds.

"Jason, you jerk! You promised you wouldn't get hurt!" she jested. Jason laughed.

"No I didn't, I only said that I wouldn't, there's a difference between that and promising something," he explained. She smiled at him, enjoying his very different personality. He didn't seem like he had anything to hide, about himself or anything he had been involved in. That kind of brutal honesty about oneself was something that could get a person to hate you; obsessing over small details like that instead of pleading guilty in front of the girl was not something you would normally expect. But Reiko valued this in a person; it made for a good martial artist, or for that matter, any other kind of warrior. It was a quality not many people had.

"Come on, we've gotta get you to a doctor," she said. Jason dismissed it with a wave, though.

"The Festival's over. Let's go to the castle and find out who won. I know someone there who is a white mage," he said. 

"Really? Who is it?" she wondered.

"Princess Garnet Til Alexandros."

WOH! I bet Reiko's surprised! What ever happened to that Burmecian soldier? Who won the Festival? Freya, probably, Zaghnol is worth a huge amount of points. But nuking four fangs at once is pretty powerful stuff! You'll just have to read the next chapter to find out!


End file.
